Deliver Us From Taffeta

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August 21, 2026

On August 21, 2026

Photo-Illustration: By The Cut; Photos: Getty Images, Donni, Aflo, Chloe,

New York has had a summer of historic heat waves, and I’ve slid across the scale of how sweaty a person can be. I start my days dewy, like the untouched lettuce in my neighborhood Key Food, and end them as a one-woman river starting at my hairline, pit-stopping at my upper lip, and puddling into my knees. While not ideal, I’m used to it; like the aroma of hot garbage, a perma-sweatstache is a fact of life in the city from June to September. What I can’t deal with are summer “trend reports” that tell me to wear two (or three) polo shirts at once like a juiced-up John Hughes villain when the feels-like temperature is 101.

The tenets of summer fashion used to be as such: Fabrics are breathable, silhouettes are simple, and outfits match the mood of a season where it’s acceptable to log off early and chase a 4 p.m. happy hour. Those guidelines are gone in 2026. This summer, taffeta pants have been called a cheat code for cool; satin is said to be a smarter, more elevated swap for denim; and Chloé’s jelly mules are the summer shoe I didn’t know I needed. I click on Net-a-Porter’s “Summer in the City” edit and am presented with leather cowboy boots and poly-silk peplum tops. Online arbiters of cool — Leandra Medine, Becky Malinsky, Courtney Grow & Co. — suggest tucking silk scarves into shirt collars and styling board shorts with blazers, riffs on recent Celine and Dries Van Noten runway looks.

Photo: Emma Childs

Sure, that all looks great in an editorial shoot. But it feels sweatphobic, frankly. I’m on an SSRI, which regulates my stress response but also whacks out my heat tolerance and sweat production. I no longer live in a perpetual state of fight or flight, but I start to sweat at even the suggestion of sunshine, often excessively so. If I wore Donni’s taffeta shorts — ShopMy’s second best-selling shorts in July, per Puck — on a high-dew-point day, I’d be at risk of heat stroke. Jelly shoes are literal sweat traps, too slippery to walk in. In a TikTok fit check, Dôen’s viral Iona shorts look great. In reality, they’re an Etch-a-Sketch of sweat stains and an expensive dry-cleaning bill.

It’s tiresome to see my peers peddling summer pieces and styling trends that, for me and my sweaty comrades, are wildly impractical. Layering is where I’ve felt the most left out. The biggest call to action from the spring 2026 season was to experiment, unabashedly so, with spirited stacks of color, texture, and print. Loewe had double-layered windbreakers. At Prada, there were bralettes under crewnecks under bloomers under aprons. But when I tried wearing two tank tops on what I thought was a balmy August Tuesday, my body interpreted it as a threat. Both layers turned into soupy cotton.

I have found a few loopholes to play with layers like my peers do, though. Pre-stacked shirts that look like multiples but are actually just one deliver dimension without the bulk. (August Barron, Lii, and Damson Madder sell several.) I’ve learned, too, that extra layers aren’t inherently evil — in some cases they’re your friend. “My trick is wrapping a scarf or tying a Chava Studio shirt around a linen dress so my butt is covered and no sweat marks are revealed,” says Erin Allweiss, a publicist and the founder of No. 29 Communications who is currently living in Paris and “thinking about sweat and fashion more than ever.” (“We’ve had back-to-back heat waves, and air-conditioning is not a thing here,” says Allweiss.)

From left:Photo: Erin AllweissPhoto: Erin Allweiss
From top:Photo: Erin AllweissPhoto: Erin Allweiss

Other times, it’s best to wear your most basic, breathable clothes and compensate elsewhere in your outfit. Yusra Siddiqui, a fashion writer, brand social-media manager, and modest dresser, has always been “a summer-fashion hater.” (“Please don’t ask me if I’m hot in my hijab because, yes, I am, and I think anyone would be in 90-plus degrees, regardless of what’s on their head,” she says.) Due to New York’s various heat waves and her being a “certified sweaty girl,” she had no other option but to pare back her maximalist style. “I felt naked wearing just a simple top and poplin pants, so I started experimenting with tying vintage scarves around my waist, pinning brooches onto my T-shirts, and layering chunky beaded necklaces,” Siddiqui says. The end results are outfits that “keep me cool but still have touches of my personality shining through.”

Photo: Yusra Siddiqui

Ultimately, I’ve learned acceptance is key (as it is for all of life’s great conundrums). That means working with, not against, my perspiration — asking myself, as Allweiss puts it, What can I wear and sweat in without people seeing my sweat?Despite absorbing more heat from the sun, black makes sweat stains less noticeable, and dark graphic prints distract the eye. (Ignore the blooming wet patch between my shoulder blades and admire my maroon polka dots instead.) Natural and absorbent fibers, like organic cotton, linen, and bamboo, won’t stop me from sweating, but they offer more ventilation, therefore making me feel less sticky. Call them boring, sure, but I’d be lost without my linen pants and cotton circle skirts.

After all, I’d rather be wearing what works for me, less stressed, and somehow still smiling, than miserable in $700 silk pantaloons and a three-layer shirt sandwich

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