Sayonara, Summer

I will admit, I am not a lover of summer (too much heat, too sticky and sweaty, too many bad hair days, too much sliding makeup, etc.).  Also, I don’t like summer clothes nearly as much as autumn and winter clothes (boots! cashmere! scarves!).  I find it much harder to feel stylish in summer clothes because I’m generally just too hot and wrecked to make any effort, so I rely on sunglasses to do most of the heavy lifting, style wise.

As you know, I often stick to black, even in summer.  Last year, I bought these Frame black denim overall-shorts with gold hardware.  They are soft and loose; I love them as much as I can possibly love a pair of shorts (which isn’t a lot).  Last year, I also bought these Chloe wedge sandals with teensy gold buckles on every strap, and I wear them nearly all year round with a skirt or cropped trousers (unless I’m going through an airport, in which case these definitely stay home).  They’re suede, so they still work in winter…not snow, mind you, but winter.  I am very hot natured (a double fire sign for you astrology types, and a definite Pitta for you ayurvedic types) so sandals in winter are actually an option for me.  I am the only person I know in London with an air-conditioner.  I was born for cool climates!  My husband doesn’t understand this, so when we go on holidays to hot places and I’m silent-but-crabby, I try to explain that for me, being hot is the equivalent of having a constant headache, and why would I choose to go on holiday somewhere that I have a headache the whole time? (I am a joy to live with, as you can tell :-))  Now, we go to hot places in May or September, so that I am not so unbearable to be around.  And I will never go on holiday to a place where the only thing to do is sit on a beach and bake, getting me and my books covered in sand and sunscreen and dripping drinks.  I’d genuinely rather be in a big city with air-conditioned museums to explore!   Anyway, back to style…

Heat or no heat, you gotta have good stylish shades in the summer, end of discussion. Sunglasses are one of my obsessions.  Perching the right pair of shades on your nose can completely change your style in the 3 seconds it takes to put them on.  I buy handfuls of sunglasses from ZeroUV, because what happens is that my friends steal them, I lose them in taxis, or they get thrown in my handbag and scratched up by my keys.  I don’t want to have to be precious and neurotic about every pair I own, so it is great to have a few cheap-and-cheerful pairs.  Most of my ZeroUV sunglasses cost under $10, so I figure that brings the average price of my sunglasses collection down significantly, and I can splurge on Anna-Karin Karlsson or Miu Miu here and there with no guilt.  These rainbow-lensed heart-shaped sunglasses are fun, and they get me through the hot days until the weather agrees to cool off and become more civilised once again.

How about you, are you a summer-lover, or do you simply endure it like I do?

Overalls: Frame Sunglasses: ZeroUV Heart Sunnies Sandals: Chloe Photography: Lottie Anderson