8 Chic Things We Wear In The Summer To “Cover Up” Without Melting Into A Puddle
#6 will change your life in one small but important way.
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by The Candidly Team
Nothing derails our plans to dress cute like the heat. The minute we start to sweat after our morning shower, everything just becomes about survival.
We scramble, damp and frazzle-haired, through our closets, looking for that one tank we don’t loathe on our arms or that poplin skirt that’s long enough to hide our knees, but nothing really comes together.
Well, no more.
This year, we thought about what makes us feel our best getting dressed in the morning, and we found 8 chic, breathable, wearable, everyday articles of clothing that make us feel very cute and summery without putting our whole damn bodies on display.
And here they are:
1. This dress for tum coverage and longer looking legs
WHAT: Z Supply Shellbound Striped Gauze Dress*
Why We Love It: Airy. Gauzy. Thrillingly soft cotton. This whisper of a dress does two critical things:
1) Covers every single inch of our hormonal, fluctuating, and oft protruding bellies.
2) Makes our legs look like they start higher and are therefore, are inches longer.
The length, paired with the sort of clean lines makes us look more youthful and chic where so many baggy dresses just read mumu.
* Gifted
Price: $120
2. These Silky soft pants that feel like PJs
WHAT: Dissh Sable Cream Silk Blend Pant*
Why we love it: These are the perfect, packable, vacation pants. The silky cotton material doesn’t really wrinkle, and the stripe magically matches all our tops. They’re tie-waisted and light as air, so we wear them instead of shorts and look 12x more put together.
Here’s our managing editor, Carolyn, wearing them to an evening pool party just this week:
Price: $91
3. This Elevating Summer Tee
WHAT: Nuuds Vintage Cotton Off The Shoulder T-Shirt*
Why We Love It: If you’re in the thicker arms club, and we are, and you prefer a t-shirt that doesn’t cut into the fleshiest bit of said arms, and we do, then this might be your new favorite summer top.
The off -shoulder smolders, but everything else is so spacious and slouchy and comfy. We wear it with shorts and maxi skirts and cropped jeans like this:
* Gifted
Price: $58
4. This Softest, Lightest Linen Button-Down
WHAT: Z Supply The Signature Linen Top*
Why we love it: When forced by the heat to wear things like little tank tops and jean shorts, we use a soft, linen button-down as our essential summer layering piece.. This one is the softest and lightest we’ve tried. We wear it in white, open over everything, including swimsuits.
We also love it in stripe, which we wear open over shorts, as a matching set, or tied at the waist:
* Gifted
Price: $88
5. The Summer Pants We Fear You Need
WHAT: Theory High-Waist Wide-Leg Pant in Good Linen*
Why We Love It: You know those pants that for some reason make you look like a leggy supermodel, and you stare into the mirror, thinking “how?!” Well, these are, without question, those pants. That’s the only reason we’re telling you about them, because frankly, they would have to be for us to dish out what they cost. They’re linen, high waisted, and wide-leg so you can comfortably wear them all summer long, and because we wear them so much, the cost-per-wear dwindles each week.
That said, if you’re just never going to spend $300 on pants, we also love THIS* perfect, cotton, everyday pair. They’re so exquisite on curves, we wear them confidently in white.
Price: $158 for the cotton, $325 for the linen
WHAT: Thigh Society The Cooling Anti-Chafe Slip Short Underwear*
Why We Love It: If just the mention of white pants made you shutter with fear of panty lines, then you are going to want to hear this bit. These shorts are smoothing and cooling and breathable, and there’s zero suctioning. Instead, they just feel like easy, breezy nothing under all our pants and dresses and skirts.
Price: $39
7. This Going Out To Dinner Dres
WHAT: Madewell Ruched Flutter-Sleeve Midi Dress*
Why We Love It: That ruching down the middle so incredibly flattering on the tum. It gives us an hourglass and makes wearing a more fitted bodice far less daunting. After that, the loose, lovely, lightweight skirt skims hips and butts, making this our go-to going-out dress for warm evenings..
Price: $130
8. These Quiet Luxury Shorts
WHAT: Faherty Sun Strider Linen Pleated Short - Harbor Line Stripe*
Why We Love It: Long shorts are becoming chic. We kid you not. We’ve seen them in London being worn to work by impossibly elegant women with belts and button-downs. We’ve seen them in Paris being worn with white tanks and tees, and we’ve seen them in our closet, because a tailored, A-line trouser short that doesn’t ride up so half our butt is on display is actually a gift to us over-40 ladies.
Price: $84
At The Candidly, we try a lot of stuff so you don’t have to. We only recommend things we truly love, and that we think you’ll love, too. All products are chosen independently by our creative team, and all details reflect the price and availability of products at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to, The Candidly may earn a commission.
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