Too Hot For Clothes

What I wear when I want to wear nothing

Vintage cotton printed top and vintage Lacoste short shorts. Sophie Buhai earrings.

Ahhh the American in Milan has her first Summer without air conditioning! It’s an adjustment - I’ll tell you that. Although, the house in New Jersey that I grew up in was an old Dutch Colonial and it didn’t have air conditioning. My parents eventually added a window unit in the downstairs living room and one in their bedroom. So in the Summers my sisters and I would sleep in sleeping bags on the floor of their room. It was fun actually, and kind of felt like a sleepover.

The first few hot days this Summer, I didn’t know what I was doing and would keep all the windows open all day. Now I’ve learned to keep everything closed during the day and even lower all of the tapparelle (the metal rolling shutters outside my windows). Then late at night when the temperature drops, I open everything and trap that cold air the next morning by closing everything when it starts to get hot again. Welcome to my cool summer cave (not great for painting lol). Maybe it sounds like a bit much to go through but it’s actually kind of great. I used to always get “Summer colds” in New York from going in and out of the cold buildings in the garment district and back out into the heat. Now when I go into a hotel room I immediately turn off the a/c (this is how you know you’re really becoming Italian).

Well, beyond understanding the genius of how these old apartment buildings were built to actually keep us cool without using a ton of energy, my other strategy has been to dress in basically as little clothes as possible. Now doing that while still looking {somewhat} chic…that is the challenge.