The Quintessential Summer Tee

The trouble with summers in India is that it isn’t just a season. Winters for us is a short break between an endless cycle of summer, spring barely lasts a day and the rainy season is but a short set of punctuation marks in the year long sentence. Given these conditions, it is no wonder that our dressing sensibilities are largely governed by the weather we have to weather in them. From fabrics choices to colour options, cuts to styles, everything is geared for comfort in warm subtropical climes.  

Here are three factors that define dressing for the tropics 

1. Fabric: This is the most important as you will feel it on your skin, all over, for most of the time. Cotton is what everyone talks about but the kind of cotton matters. Supima is the name for a cotton which is made from extra-long staple cotton, a subset of cotton that is no more than 1% of the world’s total production! The long fibres translate into a smoother, stronger yarn that is silky to touch but without the piling problems. This makes the fabric more durable and garments made using Supima last longer, don’t crease nor lose form or shape easily. They hold colours better, become softer with wear, and are 100% traceable as yet another quality assurance. 
2. Fit: Even the finest Supima in the hands of a reckless designer will yield a garment that isn’t pleasing to wear or even to look at. How a fabric drapes and falls is an important part of how it accentuates the silhouette of the wearer, balancing out proportions; a natural filter for your photos, if you will. 
3. Fall: Whether you like plain fronts with soft logos or a broad splash across the torso, either way, it’s your choice. But the quickest way to decimate your style quotient is when the tee doesn’t sit right on your frame, or in congruence with the rest of your look. A good tee has fabric  weight, which almost seems to pull it down, showing off a silhouette even while letting you feel relaxed and not too snug. Getting this balance right is all down to experience and expertise – rare but very precious when they come together right. 

So now that we know we are on the market for a solid tee or polo, let’s narrow down on one that is most certainly made with Supima cotton, and cut to look sharp and fit right. The Supima range from XYXX manages to tick all those boxes and then, a fourth one – colour and patterns for options. No boring prints, a versatile fit that is perfect for occasions that call for smart-casual as the dress code. Quality of fabric is not enough; it needs to be supported with hardware and stitching of equally worthy provenance and that, XYXX has taken meticulous care to ensure. The tees exude a similar charm but with a little more dialled down sense of formality. 

Between the 2 styles, both executed in the finest Supima, and exhaustive colour options, you are guaranteed to have yourself a very comfy and cheery summer. Go ahead, treat yourself! 

It is one big reason why the whole idea of formality stands discounted by societal consent and one doesn’t expect others to turn up in a three-piece tux just because the invite said ‘formals’. That said, there are ways to still look spiffy while staying in the comfort zone.