Hot desking: the easy, breezy guide to summer workwear

This long hot summer is all well and good if you work in a casually dressed industry (ice-cream kiosk attendants, rejoice!) or have booked off the entire month of August to holiday on home turf, but if you’re still schlepping to the office every day and need to look smart, things become a little less celebratory at this time of year.

Is it acceptable to bare your shoulders in the boardroom? Can you ever, really, wear shorts to work? And is sporting fewer, smaller items of clothing actually the answer to managing your temperature? It’s time for some blue- sky thinking because in our experience more is, well, less.

Long loose layers — particularly trousers — really hit the mark when it comes to summer workwear. Obviously, as the name suggests, they cover plenty of skin, which means you don’t have to worry about feeling underdressed in an important meeting (thus avoiding that thing when you think your skirt hem is below-the-knee and it’s not until you’re sitting down that you notice just how high it rides up).

Nor will you get caught out with an extreme case of goosebumps/uncontrollable teeth-chattering on days when the air conditioning is acting out of character and working particularly effectively. Plus, unlike more fitted traditional tailoring, loose layers are comfortable right up to close of play.

Wearing volume top to bottom isn’t always flattering but a shirt that is longer at the back than the front, like ME + EM’s swing shirt, is easy with slightly slimmer-fitting trousers, so avoid super-wide palazzo trousers with this look. They are a game- changer, though, when you sling a long dress over the top.

Zara’s asymmetric version is perfect, as the diagonal lines over beige palazzos is far more office-appropriate than this year’s other high-flying layered look: the shirt dress over jeans. If you’d rather show off your waist, team your wide strides with a simple tee or a blouse with generous sleeves, and tuck neatly into pants with a statement waist; we love Uterque’s buckled offering with its frilled paper bag effect.

Baggy tailored trousers in lightweight fabrics and muted colours or stripes have the added bonus of ticking the box trend-wise this season too. They look — and feel — effortlessly cool, especially when paired with flat shoes. To give your desk look a polished edge, though, opt for pointy ballerinas rather than sandals, which rely on you actually having time for pedicures (you’re obviously prioritising post-work drinks in the park over evening beauty treatments right now).