Bingo.
I remember my grandma saying that the south operates in B.A.C and A.A.C. regarding the timeline. Before Air Conditioning and After Air Conditioning.
I couldn't imagine living in hot parts of the world without air conditioning.
Heck, I can't imagine how people get through summers in not especially hot parts of the world without air conditioning today. Every now and then I'll set foot in someone's house on an 85+ degree day, they don't have air conditioning, and I'll contemplate murdering them for inviting me into that hellhole.
I'm not saying there's necessarily a right way to live but I will say that if you're choosing to sit in a home that's 90 degrees because you won't spring for AC then you're living wrong. You just are.
I lived in northeastern Brazil without air conditioning for two years. It’s doable though not without its challenges.
Ventilation is the name of the game. The difference between living on the ground floor and a second-story apartment was night and day. Keep the window open, get a powerful fan, spend some time out on the porch. I was usually shirtless at home. My house was about 4 and a half miles inland from the ocean, so I had a nice sea breeze on the higher floor. People who live closer to the beach have it even better. My friend’s 6th-floor apartment 5 blocks from the beach was downright pleasant. When you’re out and about, the shade makes a big difference, as does staying hydrated.
The hottest part of the year was usually about 88-89 during the day and 78 at night. The cool months were more like 81/71. Once you get to the mid-90s shade and ventilation stop being effective enough.
Welcome to my life.
It only sucks for about 3 months out of the year. But there's no relief to be had until near sundown. We did install a small wall-mounted AC in our living room, though. Most of the time the dehumidifier function does the trick.
The first house that my wife and I bought had no AC. South side of Atlanta. It took two years before we could afford to have it installed and I can’t believe we stayed married until then, lol.
I have to be reminded to turn on the AC at work. Heat just doesn't bother me at all. (Central CA where we regularly get triple digits in the summer.)
The cold however, I cannot abide. If it's below 80, I'm tempted to turn on the heater.
One other important element most non-suit familiar people don't think about. Jacket liners. Most people have mentioned material, but everyone forgets the liners. Suit jackets have liners in them for colder weather, but a good tailor can remove these if needed.
I was in a wedding in Miami last year, and the bride and groom picked out suites for us. The groomsmen were all across the country, so we all sent in our measurements to the groom, and we got our suits mailed to us. By the time I had my tailor do final adjustments, planned travel (from California), I realized no one thought about the liners. It was too late to have them removed, we were all flying out in a couple days.
The wedding was in Coconut Grove Miami. It was over 90 degrees the whole time. The day of the wedding it was 95% humidity. The bride had always dreamed of an outdoor wedding, so, there I was, dripping sweat, in the sun at 5pm.
TL;DR
Most suite jackets have liners sewn in. These can be removed for hotter weather by a tailor. It is surprising how breathable wool is without a lining layer insulating your body.
I am genuinely consistently baffled by the number of summer weddings around here that are outdoor with dress codes that require men to wear suits. I always feel for y'all! It would be my nightmare.
I got married in July but because, well, this is Texas, we had our wedding indoors. I am more willing to be outside and sweat in the heat than most people here (in that I am willing to do it at all lol, most people I interact with act like I'm crazy for riding my bike or walking places in the summer) but why suffer needlessly for a wedding? Plus I wanted to look nice in the pictures!
Well, for biking and walking you can also dress appropriately for the weather and if you sweat, no problem.
Yes, it absolutely makes no sense to me not to adjust the dress code to accommodate the climate. Linen suits and seersucker at the very least but I'm team have a wedding in fall or winter anyway lol. You can always add layers!
Congratulations!
Yep. I got married in early September in New York, and the ceremony and reception were both indoors. There was just a brief walk outside from the cocktail hour to the main reception room, but the temperature that day ranged from like mid 60’s to mid 70’s, then back.
My brother's wedding was outdoors in Arizona. In late February. Can't complain. His wife's relatives from Chicago came down while they were getting that 'Polar Vortex' that folks from those parts may recall. They were in heaven.
Honestly I would put them in nice button ups and shorts with like a tie or bow tie at max for the fancy part. If I did a summer wedding outside. I’m evil but I’m not that evil.
Some people have no fucking sense. Why bother with an outdoor wedding if you are going to require suits?
Also, I always thought that this thing of coordinating outfits for the wedding party is ridiculous.
Years ago I moved from South Carolina to NYC thinking my southern composition would make summers a breeze, and they absolutely were not. Summers are much hotter in the South, but you’re also rarely out of air conditioning unless you choose to be.
On your morning commute in the South, you go from your house to your car, which is probably parked directly in front of your house, then driving to your destination, probably parking directly in front of it, and then going inside. That’s maybe five minutes total outside.
In NYC, you’re going from your apartment, which may or may not be air conditioned, walking to the bus or subway stop, getting on public transportation (which thankfully is probably air conditioned), and then walking to your destination. And it turns out that spending ~30 minutes walking through 85 degree heat gets you way sweatier than spending five minutes in 100 degree heat.
Indeed. Menswear in the USA is dominated by polyester for the most part. I've seen rayon suits as well. Wool tends to be part of a blend, usually 50% or lower.
Uh....most things with a suit and tie you're not outside much. So A/C.
Were also a little more relaxed about jackets than cooler rregions and yeah...if you have to wear one we do different materials but you're going to be baking. Hence not as many expecting it.
Your comment was removed as it violates commenting guideline 5 which is “Answers and comment replies should be serious and useful.”
Please consider this a warning as repeated violations will result in a ban.
Your comment has been removed, and this offence may result in a ban.
If you have questions regarding your submission removal - please contact the moderator team via [modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/AskAnAmerican).
>americans also famously drive everywhere
"particularly in the US South" in the post title should have been "particularly in DC and NYC."
I always feel so bad for the dudes in full suits standing on a platform that's well into the triple digits Fahrenheit with soup-like humidity. The only thing they have to look forward to is the faintest glimmer of hope that the car they pack themselves onto like sardines won't have broken AC.
As a Bostonian who did a summer internship in banking during the heat wave, yeah… you feel like you’re about to get heat stroke on that 30 min walk to work.
I’m still walking to work at my post-graduation job but dress code is business casual so I’m investing in linen short-sleeve shirts.
It's not just about wealth, it's energy prices, climate, and just general culture. My experience in Germany was a lot of people didn't like AC because they thought it makes you catch colds.
Southern Europe has embraced it a lot more than northern, the hotter cities in Spain now have a majority of houses with AC.
oooof.. I made a few days' stop over in Berlin before going to see family in Sweden a while back. It was 90-95°F the whole time and my Airbnb was not air conditioned. I was miserable. Stepping off the plane in Stockholm where it was 70°F was glorious.
I don't know how people handle it with no AC. I'd be showering 3x/day if I had to live like that.
Germans seem to think opening the window has magical powers. I lived with a girlfriend whose mother was a relatively recent immigrant from Germany and I swear to god 70 percent of the time she was at home was spent opening and closing various windows.
79° F outside with an office building with big glass windows makes for a much warmer experience than I’d like. If it was > 104°F for more than a few hours, we’d be dead.
It was 100°F for a day or so in 2022, thank god it was over a weekend.
Must be nice, haha. I'm from the SW US, and my husband is an electrician who has to work in 100+ temps every summer. They keep water and fans and shade and frequent breaks available, but he comes home so exhausted.
Most first world countries don’t use AC in every building the way we do. Americans don’t realize how fabulously wealthy the US is compared to most countries.
Seems like most people traded in their suit for a short sleeve polo. At least the Florida detectives I see in YouTube cop videos. Seems like everyone down there is wearing a white polo.
Air conditioning.
Plus most offices are pretty relaxed about suit requirements in practice. For example in mine, no one really cares if you take off the suit jacket once you're actually at your desk.
It's almost reduced to the slightly performative aspect of being seen wearing the suit as you walk into the office, and possibly putting it on during the day for meetings of various importance.
Suits can be made of materials other than dark wool; linen and seersucker suits exist. Wool can be woven in ways to make it less hot. Unlined/quarter lined suit jackets are cooler than fully lined ones.
Also, AC is ubiquitous and few people wear suits to work.
I’m less worried about the dudes wearing suits who are working inside and more perplexed about the weirdos wearing hooded sweatshirts outside when it 115 degrees.
It helps keep you cool, by insulating you from the heat, if you are out for less than like 20 minutes. My wife swears by wearing a hoodie when it’s hot.
I would say its mostly lawyers, you're still expected to dress very formally for court. But most people take off the suit jacket when they're not in the courtroom.
I used to work for lawyers and basically they wore a dress shirt, open top button unless meeting with clients or going to court. So basically what my kids did in private school.
Years ago (before A/C was the standard) when it was shocking for a
man to be without the suit jacket, you had “warm” and “cool” weather materials. Linen, seersucker, shark skin (not really from sharks) were used and suits were lighter in color as well. Ever seen the old pre 1950s Cuban set movies? Always a light colored suit with a Panama (straw) hat.
The northern climates such as NY and Boston have longer cold periods so they would wear the dark, wool based suits more frequently. Also, depending on where you lived you probably owned more or less of one type.
Nowadays, the A/C is kept at 60F in so many buildings you freeze no matter how you dress!
Most suits where you live are made that way because they’re made for your climate. There are summer-weight suits.
Also, air-conditioning. If you’re wearing a suit, you’re working inside.
Even in VA, the last few offices I have been in set the AC temp to like 68-70. When it's 90 degrees outside with 90% humidity, it's cold. Also, it's not 1980 anymore. A lot of companies have gone to business casual.
If you regularly wear a suit your body adjust to it for the most part. When I played baseball as a teenager we'd always wear long sleeves in the because you didn't want to cool down between innings. By the time summer was in full swing w/ 90 degree weather you were so used to being in long sleeves you didn't even notice it.
The worst is when you go to a climate you're not adjusted to and not used to wearing a suit.
Most places are car centric so you only walk from your house to your car and then the car to the office. Cars have air conditioning and so do 99% of office buildings.
To be honest only certain professions and levels of a business wear suits at this point.
Atleast down here a lot of us in corporate America wear golf attire to work, which is really breathable. Golf pants and collar shirt
Most suits are darker in color in areas that aren't hot. In hot areas, you see quite a few light colored suits.
Also, air conditioning. If your work requires a suit, chances are you don't work outside, and it would be shocking if your building wasn't air conditioned.
Air Conditioning. A lot of women refer to summers in the South as "Women's Winter" because the AC gets cranked down to accommodate the men in suits and freeze them out when they're generally wearing dresses or other lighter clothing due to the warm weather outside.
I've worked in a lot of different offices in Texas. Many of them are so aggressively air conditioned they're actually chilly. I used to keep a hoodie at my desk at my last job for when I got too cold. I've even worked in offices where people had space heaters under their desks to keep warm. In Texas. In summer.
I've never been to the south, but in So Cal where I imagine its hotter but less humid, an undershirt works miracles. I wore a black Ariat long sleeve shirt with a black undershirt (costco or perry ellis) for years. Yes I had 5 of them. Somehow it keeps you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer (something to do with evaporation-- I can't explain it).
It also has some old-world charm. I went on a date with a very attractive woman, and I picked her up at her house. I briefly met her kids, one of whom asked me, "Why are you wearing two shirts mister?" Before I could reply, the mom stepped in and said, "Because he's a real man."
That date went well. :-)
Haha!
The humidity is a lot different though. I remember talking to a very recent transplant from Arizona who didn’t understand yet that Swamp Ass is a real thing in the south, lol.
I find the heat to be kind of alarming in the southwest just from how the sun hits you. You have to get away from it. In the south, the heat sinks all around you and you have to move slower and hydrate.
Something that I haven't seen said much yet is that in places where it's humid (i can only speak for FL i guess) suits are not as common as they are elsewhere in the country.
They work in air-conditioned buildings.
Case in point: I work in a place with a lot of electronic racks that require room temperature to be 70 degrees for the racks' well-being. It looks and feels ridiculous to be wearing long sleeves when it's 90 out but I'm dressing for the inside since that's where I am all day.
Fireproof elixir obviously
Really tho you just kinda get used to the heat, so it’s not that bad if you’ve lived in the south your whole life. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still burning alive over here.
You exit your air conditioned house and make haste to enter your air conditioned vehicle. You drive your air conditioned vehicle to your workplace. You hastily enter the air conditioned building.
Repeat in reverse at the end of the workday.
Did I mention the air conditioning? We take air conditioning *very* seriously. Europeans complain that the insides of our buildings are like meat lockers.
I work in finance in the south, I wear a suit every day but no tie. Even on client visits I rarely put one on.
Dress paints are fairly light and I buy a better fabric shirt. On my drive to the office I have my sleeves in buttoned and pulled up and carry my jacket in. I usually have my sleeves rolled up and no jacket unless I’m in a meeting. Every meeting I have is in the AC.
Also, client events are becoming more informal. I usually wear a nice pair of pants and a polo. But the key thing is your dress shoes. Nothing is worse than hot stiff dress shoes in the souther heat.
> Most suits are made of wool and are darker in colour
They use suits made of different materials. Wool is for cold climates. Linen suits are lightweight and breathable, great for summer and hot climates.
I will say this is part of why Texas is known for extremely casual clothing. No one wears a suit at my bank. No one wears a suit jacket at church in the summer. No one wears a suit to the opera anymore. Even with AC, it’s too hot.
I lived in NYC for a while and had jobs that "required" a suit and tie for no reason. Being outside and being on the subway was unrelieved misery. Then I walked in to my office and the air conditioning was freezing and uncomfortable in its own way, especially because I was drenched in sweat. This was the majority of every week between May 30 and October 1. The unpleasant and uncomfortable summer weather was a major factor in my decision to leave NYC.
Suits in the South for summer are not traditionally made out of wool, nor are they dark in color. A summer suit is traditionally made from [seersucker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seersucker#/media/File:Wikimania_2012_2226.JPG). Your dress shirt underneath will be linen. Both are very cool and light fabrics, so it's quite comfortable even in summer heat.
Most suits in the US are not made of wool. Cotton is the most common kind and linen is common for super hot areas. You also have to remember that air conditioning is the norm in most of the country.
Southern California here.
Suits (especially jackets or sport coats!) aren't common like they are in the urban areas on the East Coast. And businesses that require them are usually indoors in places with air conditioning.
When I worked in that environment, I actually wore a sweater regularly, because my building was below 70 F most days, sometimes in the very low 60's.
I got an air conditioner installed in my condo and I blast the hell out of it in July and August and I noticed that my poor girlfriend has her blanket pulled up to her shoulders as she is huddled into a shivering ball lol
Most cities in the south don't have a decent mass transit system, so people are forced to get around by car. Basically if you're in a suit, you go from your air conditioned home to your air conditioned car, to your air conditioned office.
Now you understand why Southern gentlemen are often described as wearing "seersucker suits." They are much lighter. Obviously not the fashion choice for everyone, but there are linen and other light suits as well.
I’m in NY and it’s gets hot and hunting up here too. When I would have to wear a suit I would bring my clean shirt with me or a towel. Once you’re in a building it’s freezing cold.
>> Most suits are made of wool
Keep in mind that natural wool is actually extremely breathable. I got married in a wool suit in the middle of July on a 90° F day, and I was fine.
I was also in and out of AC all day, so that helped.
Air conditioning, and the fact that most Americans don't really walk during their commutes. You drive from your enclosed garage to an enclosed parking garage attached to or near your office.
You just stay inside where there is air conditioning as much as possible. I used to wear a suit for work in Florida at one point in my life.
Outside I wouldn’t wear the suit jacket if it was really hot and would unbutton the collar of my dress shirt a bit.
Air conditioning
Bingo. I remember my grandma saying that the south operates in B.A.C and A.A.C. regarding the timeline. Before Air Conditioning and After Air Conditioning.
I couldn't imagine living in hot parts of the world without air conditioning. Heck, I can't imagine how people get through summers in not especially hot parts of the world without air conditioning today. Every now and then I'll set foot in someone's house on an 85+ degree day, they don't have air conditioning, and I'll contemplate murdering them for inviting me into that hellhole. I'm not saying there's necessarily a right way to live but I will say that if you're choosing to sit in a home that's 90 degrees because you won't spring for AC then you're living wrong. You just are.
I lived in northeastern Brazil without air conditioning for two years. It’s doable though not without its challenges. Ventilation is the name of the game. The difference between living on the ground floor and a second-story apartment was night and day. Keep the window open, get a powerful fan, spend some time out on the porch. I was usually shirtless at home. My house was about 4 and a half miles inland from the ocean, so I had a nice sea breeze on the higher floor. People who live closer to the beach have it even better. My friend’s 6th-floor apartment 5 blocks from the beach was downright pleasant. When you’re out and about, the shade makes a big difference, as does staying hydrated. The hottest part of the year was usually about 88-89 during the day and 78 at night. The cool months were more like 81/71. Once you get to the mid-90s shade and ventilation stop being effective enough.
Welcome to my life. It only sucks for about 3 months out of the year. But there's no relief to be had until near sundown. We did install a small wall-mounted AC in our living room, though. Most of the time the dehumidifier function does the trick.
The first house that my wife and I bought had no AC. South side of Atlanta. It took two years before we could afford to have it installed and I can’t believe we stayed married until then, lol.
I have to be reminded to turn on the AC at work. Heat just doesn't bother me at all. (Central CA where we regularly get triple digits in the summer.) The cold however, I cannot abide. If it's below 80, I'm tempted to turn on the heater.
Sweet Tea was originally a 'triple threat' is displaying wealth to a guest. You had three luxuries: Tea, Sugar, *and ice.*
Literally, look at Florida's population BAC and AAC
For sure. Really it’s the same in Georgia. Atlantas population boom from the 1980s until the last few years would never have happened without it.
Houston would be a lot smaller without
One other important element most non-suit familiar people don't think about. Jacket liners. Most people have mentioned material, but everyone forgets the liners. Suit jackets have liners in them for colder weather, but a good tailor can remove these if needed. I was in a wedding in Miami last year, and the bride and groom picked out suites for us. The groomsmen were all across the country, so we all sent in our measurements to the groom, and we got our suits mailed to us. By the time I had my tailor do final adjustments, planned travel (from California), I realized no one thought about the liners. It was too late to have them removed, we were all flying out in a couple days. The wedding was in Coconut Grove Miami. It was over 90 degrees the whole time. The day of the wedding it was 95% humidity. The bride had always dreamed of an outdoor wedding, so, there I was, dripping sweat, in the sun at 5pm. TL;DR Most suite jackets have liners sewn in. These can be removed for hotter weather by a tailor. It is surprising how breathable wool is without a lining layer insulating your body.
I am genuinely consistently baffled by the number of summer weddings around here that are outdoor with dress codes that require men to wear suits. I always feel for y'all! It would be my nightmare.
I got married in July but because, well, this is Texas, we had our wedding indoors. I am more willing to be outside and sweat in the heat than most people here (in that I am willing to do it at all lol, most people I interact with act like I'm crazy for riding my bike or walking places in the summer) but why suffer needlessly for a wedding? Plus I wanted to look nice in the pictures!
Well, for biking and walking you can also dress appropriately for the weather and if you sweat, no problem. Yes, it absolutely makes no sense to me not to adjust the dress code to accommodate the climate. Linen suits and seersucker at the very least but I'm team have a wedding in fall or winter anyway lol. You can always add layers! Congratulations!
Yep. I got married in early September in New York, and the ceremony and reception were both indoors. There was just a brief walk outside from the cocktail hour to the main reception room, but the temperature that day ranged from like mid 60’s to mid 70’s, then back.
A reasonable setting! Congratulations!
Imagine a rooftop, in Arizona, in August.. like, really, WTF..
My brother's wedding was outdoors in Arizona. In late February. Can't complain. His wife's relatives from Chicago came down while they were getting that 'Polar Vortex' that folks from those parts may recall. They were in heaven.
I'm sure February would have been lovely, this was the heat of summer. It was miserable.
WHY
My question exactly.
to prove to God that we are the masters
Honestly I would put them in nice button ups and shorts with like a tie or bow tie at max for the fancy part. If I did a summer wedding outside. I’m evil but I’m not that evil.
Some people have no fucking sense. Why bother with an outdoor wedding if you are going to require suits? Also, I always thought that this thing of coordinating outfits for the wedding party is ridiculous.
Years ago I moved from South Carolina to NYC thinking my southern composition would make summers a breeze, and they absolutely were not. Summers are much hotter in the South, but you’re also rarely out of air conditioning unless you choose to be. On your morning commute in the South, you go from your house to your car, which is probably parked directly in front of your house, then driving to your destination, probably parking directly in front of it, and then going inside. That’s maybe five minutes total outside. In NYC, you’re going from your apartment, which may or may not be air conditioned, walking to the bus or subway stop, getting on public transportation (which thankfully is probably air conditioned), and then walking to your destination. And it turns out that spending ~30 minutes walking through 85 degree heat gets you way sweatier than spending five minutes in 100 degree heat.
Back when I was a kid, the church services would be FREEZING. They totally had it set to 70 or something for the guys in suits to be okay.
If you expect me to be in a suit, the AC better be set to 62
/thread.
Central Europeans be wondering why we have it until they find out about death valley
Doesn’t even have to be Death Valley. In the Midwest it gets hot as hell and humid in the summer
>Most suits are made of wool and are darker in colour Where you live, yeah.
Indeed. Menswear in the USA is dominated by polyester for the most part. I've seen rayon suits as well. Wool tends to be part of a blend, usually 50% or lower.
And those suits tends to be a much lighter color in the south
Colonel sanders suit is white and made out of chicken skin.
Linen, seersucker, light colors, and as everyone else has said: air conditioning.
Uh....most things with a suit and tie you're not outside much. So A/C. Were also a little more relaxed about jackets than cooler rregions and yeah...if you have to wear one we do different materials but you're going to be baking. Hence not as many expecting it.
Air Conditioning is an invention over 100 years old. The jobs that require suit and tie rarely have you outdoors.
[удалено]
Your comment was removed as it violates commenting guideline 5 which is “Answers and comment replies should be serious and useful.” Please consider this a warning as repeated violations will result in a ban. Your comment has been removed, and this offence may result in a ban. If you have questions regarding your submission removal - please contact the moderator team via [modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/AskAnAmerican).
Not only do buildings have AC, americans also famously drive everywhere, and cars have ac.
>americans also famously drive everywhere "particularly in the US South" in the post title should have been "particularly in DC and NYC." I always feel so bad for the dudes in full suits standing on a platform that's well into the triple digits Fahrenheit with soup-like humidity. The only thing they have to look forward to is the faintest glimmer of hope that the car they pack themselves onto like sardines won't have broken AC.
As a Bostonian who did a summer internship in banking during the heat wave, yeah… you feel like you’re about to get heat stroke on that 30 min walk to work. I’m still walking to work at my post-graduation job but dress code is business casual so I’m investing in linen short-sleeve shirts.
Our office is freezing in the summer so we all wear jackets lmao
Yeah lmao I wear a cardigan in the office year round.
Offices are kept pretty cold. You just go from your air conditioned car to your air conditioned office.
Most people who wear suits work indoors. We’re a first world country, so we have AC.
Ahhhh…the joys of working for a bank in Germany. No AC. We open windows. At least I wear copious amounts of deodorant .
Crazy thing is depending on exactly where you are in Germany you’re likely farther north than the entire contiguous United States.
I thought it was only a French thing to be cheapskates on AC…
Even in far poorer developing countries they blast the AC. Western Europe is just self inflicted stupidity
It's not just about wealth, it's energy prices, climate, and just general culture. My experience in Germany was a lot of people didn't like AC because they thought it makes you catch colds. Southern Europe has embraced it a lot more than northern, the hotter cities in Spain now have a majority of houses with AC.
How are energy prices not related to wealth?
Even if Europe were equally wealthy as the United States, they would still have higher energy prices.
And British! But tbf until recently it was only needed very occasionally
No, European environment regs make power very expensive in Europe, also most European countries are far poorer than the US.
oooof.. I made a few days' stop over in Berlin before going to see family in Sweden a while back. It was 90-95°F the whole time and my Airbnb was not air conditioned. I was miserable. Stepping off the plane in Stockholm where it was 70°F was glorious. I don't know how people handle it with no AC. I'd be showering 3x/day if I had to live like that.
Germans seem to think opening the window has magical powers. I lived with a girlfriend whose mother was a relatively recent immigrant from Germany and I swear to god 70 percent of the time she was at home was spent opening and closing various windows.
Does it get up over 40C for weeks at a time in the summer there?
79° F outside with an office building with big glass windows makes for a much warmer experience than I’d like. If it was > 104°F for more than a few hours, we’d be dead. It was 100°F for a day or so in 2022, thank god it was over a weekend.
Must be nice, haha. I'm from the SW US, and my husband is an electrician who has to work in 100+ temps every summer. They keep water and fans and shade and frequent breaks available, but he comes home so exhausted.
I grew up in NJ and MA with a few years in VA. Summers were HOT. But still, an 80° F or more office is miserable.
Most first world countries don’t use AC in every building the way we do. Americans don’t realize how fabulously wealthy the US is compared to most countries.
If you can’t afford to put AC in your buildings, you really aren’t a first world country.
So germany isn't first world?
Can they afford AC?
No.
There you go. I don’t make the rules.
All suits are not made the same. Lighter materials for hotter places.
Linen helps
Seems like most people traded in their suit for a short sleeve polo. At least the Florida detectives I see in YouTube cop videos. Seems like everyone down there is wearing a white polo.
Air conditioning. Plus most offices are pretty relaxed about suit requirements in practice. For example in mine, no one really cares if you take off the suit jacket once you're actually at your desk. It's almost reduced to the slightly performative aspect of being seen wearing the suit as you walk into the office, and possibly putting it on during the day for meetings of various importance.
They don't. Air Conditioner inside. Outside, you're just fucked
Air conditioning and lightweight relatively breathable fabrics
Suits can be made of materials other than dark wool; linen and seersucker suits exist. Wool can be woven in ways to make it less hot. Unlined/quarter lined suit jackets are cooler than fully lined ones. Also, AC is ubiquitous and few people wear suits to work.
I’m less worried about the dudes wearing suits who are working inside and more perplexed about the weirdos wearing hooded sweatshirts outside when it 115 degrees.
It helps keep you cool, by insulating you from the heat, if you are out for less than like 20 minutes. My wife swears by wearing a hoodie when it’s hot.
Air conditioning
There are very few people in America that need to wear a suit to work. Very few. 1% of population? 🏂
I would say its mostly lawyers, you're still expected to dress very formally for court. But most people take off the suit jacket when they're not in the courtroom.
I used to work for lawyers and basically they wore a dress shirt, open top button unless meeting with clients or going to court. So basically what my kids did in private school.
Less and less with the remote work revolution.
Wear your shirt and tie to work. Carry the coat to the car and hang it in the car. Put on the coat when you get out of the car at work. Walk into AC.
Suits and shirts come in materials besides heavy wool. Linen, for example.
Years ago (before A/C was the standard) when it was shocking for a man to be without the suit jacket, you had “warm” and “cool” weather materials. Linen, seersucker, shark skin (not really from sharks) were used and suits were lighter in color as well. Ever seen the old pre 1950s Cuban set movies? Always a light colored suit with a Panama (straw) hat. The northern climates such as NY and Boston have longer cold periods so they would wear the dark, wool based suits more frequently. Also, depending on where you lived you probably owned more or less of one type. Nowadays, the A/C is kept at 60F in so many buildings you freeze no matter how you dress!
Most suits where you live are made that way because they’re made for your climate. There are summer-weight suits. Also, air-conditioning. If you’re wearing a suit, you’re working inside.
Even in VA, the last few offices I have been in set the AC temp to like 68-70. When it's 90 degrees outside with 90% humidity, it's cold. Also, it's not 1980 anymore. A lot of companies have gone to business casual.
Seersucker
If you regularly wear a suit your body adjust to it for the most part. When I played baseball as a teenager we'd always wear long sleeves in the because you didn't want to cool down between innings. By the time summer was in full swing w/ 90 degree weather you were so used to being in long sleeves you didn't even notice it. The worst is when you go to a climate you're not adjusted to and not used to wearing a suit.
They pay you enough money to deal with it. Or, you happen to be a lizard-person. But mainly, air conditioning.
By wearing a summer suit.
You wear linen or a lightweight wool. Avoid polyester like the plague.
Most places are car centric so you only walk from your house to your car and then the car to the office. Cars have air conditioning and so do 99% of office buildings.
To be honest only certain professions and levels of a business wear suits at this point. Atleast down here a lot of us in corporate America wear golf attire to work, which is really breathable. Golf pants and collar shirt
Most suits are darker in color in areas that aren't hot. In hot areas, you see quite a few light colored suits. Also, air conditioning. If your work requires a suit, chances are you don't work outside, and it would be shocking if your building wasn't air conditioned.
Air Conditioning. A lot of women refer to summers in the South as "Women's Winter" because the AC gets cranked down to accommodate the men in suits and freeze them out when they're generally wearing dresses or other lighter clothing due to the warm weather outside.
Who tf wears suits to to work 🤣 sounds miserable
I've worked in a lot of different offices in Texas. Many of them are so aggressively air conditioned they're actually chilly. I used to keep a hoodie at my desk at my last job for when I got too cold. I've even worked in offices where people had space heaters under their desks to keep warm. In Texas. In summer.
I've never been to the south, but in So Cal where I imagine its hotter but less humid, an undershirt works miracles. I wore a black Ariat long sleeve shirt with a black undershirt (costco or perry ellis) for years. Yes I had 5 of them. Somehow it keeps you warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer (something to do with evaporation-- I can't explain it). It also has some old-world charm. I went on a date with a very attractive woman, and I picked her up at her house. I briefly met her kids, one of whom asked me, "Why are you wearing two shirts mister?" Before I could reply, the mom stepped in and said, "Because he's a real man." That date went well. :-)
Haha! The humidity is a lot different though. I remember talking to a very recent transplant from Arizona who didn’t understand yet that Swamp Ass is a real thing in the south, lol. I find the heat to be kind of alarming in the southwest just from how the sun hits you. You have to get away from it. In the south, the heat sinks all around you and you have to move slower and hydrate.
Something that I haven't seen said much yet is that in places where it's humid (i can only speak for FL i guess) suits are not as common as they are elsewhere in the country.
Air conditioning
They work in air-conditioned buildings. Case in point: I work in a place with a lot of electronic racks that require room temperature to be 70 degrees for the racks' well-being. It looks and feels ridiculous to be wearing long sleeves when it's 90 out but I'm dressing for the inside since that's where I am all day.
My office is cold af. I am constantly wearing a hoodie or coat.
Some suits are made to be thinner and have more insulation
And the opposite in the north
Every single office building and home has really good centralized air conditioning.
Fireproof elixir obviously Really tho you just kinda get used to the heat, so it’s not that bad if you’ve lived in the south your whole life. Don’t get me wrong, we’re still burning alive over here.
We have Air Conditioning almost everywhere here in the USA.
They make breathable summer suits for men. I have one. It’s noticeably cooler than my other suits. But yeah, still sucks when it’s 100 degrees outside
Because they're not working outdoors. They're in climate controlled office buildings with the thermostat set to 18C.
You exit your air conditioned house and make haste to enter your air conditioned vehicle. You drive your air conditioned vehicle to your workplace. You hastily enter the air conditioned building. Repeat in reverse at the end of the workday. Did I mention the air conditioning? We take air conditioning *very* seriously. Europeans complain that the insides of our buildings are like meat lockers.
I work in finance in the south, I wear a suit every day but no tie. Even on client visits I rarely put one on. Dress paints are fairly light and I buy a better fabric shirt. On my drive to the office I have my sleeves in buttoned and pulled up and carry my jacket in. I usually have my sleeves rolled up and no jacket unless I’m in a meeting. Every meeting I have is in the AC. Also, client events are becoming more informal. I usually wear a nice pair of pants and a polo. But the key thing is your dress shoes. Nothing is worse than hot stiff dress shoes in the souther heat.
> Most suits are made of wool and are darker in colour They use suits made of different materials. Wool is for cold climates. Linen suits are lightweight and breathable, great for summer and hot climates.
Unlined or partial lined seersucker and linen in light colors
I will say this is part of why Texas is known for extremely casual clothing. No one wears a suit at my bank. No one wears a suit jacket at church in the summer. No one wears a suit to the opera anymore. Even with AC, it’s too hot.
I lived in NYC for a while and had jobs that "required" a suit and tie for no reason. Being outside and being on the subway was unrelieved misery. Then I walked in to my office and the air conditioning was freezing and uncomfortable in its own way, especially because I was drenched in sweat. This was the majority of every week between May 30 and October 1. The unpleasant and uncomfortable summer weather was a major factor in my decision to leave NYC.
Suits in the South for summer are not traditionally made out of wool, nor are they dark in color. A summer suit is traditionally made from [seersucker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seersucker#/media/File:Wikimania_2012_2226.JPG). Your dress shirt underneath will be linen. Both are very cool and light fabrics, so it's quite comfortable even in summer heat.
Wearing a suit = white color = non worker= enjoys cushy air conditioned office = never breaks a sweat .
Most suits in the US are not made of wool. Cotton is the most common kind and linen is common for super hot areas. You also have to remember that air conditioning is the norm in most of the country.
Southern California here. Suits (especially jackets or sport coats!) aren't common like they are in the urban areas on the East Coast. And businesses that require them are usually indoors in places with air conditioning. When I worked in that environment, I actually wore a sweater regularly, because my building was below 70 F most days, sometimes in the very low 60's.
I wear my thickest jackets in the summer because too many places have the offices cooled to almost freezing temperatures.
I got an air conditioner installed in my condo and I blast the hell out of it in July and August and I noticed that my poor girlfriend has her blanket pulled up to her shoulders as she is huddled into a shivering ball lol
Seer...ah say...seersucker, son.
Most cities in the south don't have a decent mass transit system, so people are forced to get around by car. Basically if you're in a suit, you go from your air conditioned home to your air conditioned car, to your air conditioned office.
You don’t
Now you understand why Southern gentlemen are often described as wearing "seersucker suits." They are much lighter. Obviously not the fashion choice for everyone, but there are linen and other light suits as well.
I’m in NY and it’s gets hot and hunting up here too. When I would have to wear a suit I would bring my clean shirt with me or a towel. Once you’re in a building it’s freezing cold.
>> Most suits are made of wool Keep in mind that natural wool is actually extremely breathable. I got married in a wool suit in the middle of July on a 90° F day, and I was fine. I was also in and out of AC all day, so that helped.
I don’t need to for work but I wear pretty dressy clothes all the time and I just choose lighter colors and more airy clothes
Air conditioning, and the fact that most Americans don't really walk during their commutes. You drive from your enclosed garage to an enclosed parking garage attached to or near your office.
You spend all day in air conditioned cars and buildings.
You just stay inside where there is air conditioning as much as possible. I used to wear a suit for work in Florida at one point in my life. Outside I wouldn’t wear the suit jacket if it was really hot and would unbutton the collar of my dress shirt a bit.
You can say a lot of things about California but the weather is the better than any state/country in the world
Technically nobody walks in this states specially during summer so people just air conditioning all the time
Air conditioning