Summer in Charleston begins, unofficially, the morning the humidity arrives without warning and the porch ferns start to droop by ten. That is when I retire the cashmere, send the wool trousers to the cedar closet, and pull down the linen. After thirty-some years of editing fashion and home pages at Better Homes & Gardens, I have learned that summer dressing is less about chasing a trend than about knowing which fabrics will forgive you when the thermometer climbs to ninety-four.
What follows is the short list I keep in mind each June. It is shaped, in part, by what the runways have been quietly insisting upon for 2025 and 2026, and in larger part by what works on a sixty-something woman walking a cocker spaniel named Beauregard down a brick sidewalk.
1. Begin with the fabric, not the silhouette
Linen has come back into serious favor, and not the wrinkled-cargo version of a decade ago. The trade press has been calling Spring/Summer 2026 a linen season, and for once the trade press is right. Look for a heavier weight (around 5.3 ounces) for trousers and a lighter handkerchief weight for blouses. Cotton voile, silk noil, and a good cotton-linen blend will all earn their keep through August. Synthetics have a way of behaving badly in Southern heat. They cling, they hold odor, and they betray you.
2. Lengthen the hem, don't shorten it
Designers are pushing midis and maxis again, and for women past sixty this is a quiet gift. A midi skirt that grazes the lower calf flatters in a way a mini cannot, and it spares you the small hourly indignity of tugging at a hemline. I am partial to a column-shaped linen skirt with a side slit just generous enough to walk in. Pair it with a flat sandal and there is nothing more to do.
3. Reconsider the matching set
The co-ord set, as the magazines now call it, is one of the kinder developments of recent seasons. A linen camp shirt and matching wide-leg trouser, both in oat or sand or a soft butter yellow, gives the eye one uninterrupted line. There is no waistband doing odd things, no quarrel between top and bottom. Sister Parish used to say a room should be furnished with one good idea, not five competing ones. The same principle works on the body.
4. Let the pencil skirt rest for a season
The earlier version of this article made a case for the pencil skirt in summer. With respect to that earlier writer, I would put the pencil skirt back in the closet until October. In August, in Atlanta or Savannah or Houston, a fitted skirt becomes a small cruelty. The shift dress, with its boat neckline and skimming line, does the same flattering work and lets a breeze through.
5. Espadrilles, yes; pointy toe, optional
Espadrilles remain the right summer shoe, particularly the canvas slip-on in a natural jute. The pointy toe that everyone was promoting a few years back is no longer compulsory. A round or almond toe is, frankly, easier on a foot that has carried you for six decades. If you have any tendency toward bunions or plantar fasciitis, look at the brands that build a contoured footbed in (Toni Pons and Andre Assous have both done this well). Skip anything with an espadrille wedge over two inches; the brick sidewalks of older neighborhoods will punish you for it.
6. The slip dress, gently revised
The slip dress, of all things, is back. I recognize the eye-roll this may produce. The 2026 version is not the spaghetti-strap article of the late nineties. It is cut in heavier silk or a silk-cotton blend, with a slightly higher neckline and a strap wide enough to conceal a bra. Worn under an unbuttoned linen shirt for daytime and on its own for an early supper, it is genuinely useful. A pearl earring is the only embellishment required.
7. Color, with a steady hand
The color story for 2026, according to the trade reports, is a return to primaries: a true red, a cobalt, a clear yellow. Used carefully, these can be a tonic. A cobalt linen blazer thrown over a white shift will lift a face that has been through a long winter. The trick is one strong color at a time. The all-orange ensemble that the previous version of this piece encouraged is, for most women I know, a step too far. A scarf in that orange, knotted at the handle of a straw bag, will give you the same lift without committing the entire outfit to it.
8. The cuff bracelet, and one or two other small pieces
A wide cuff bracelet remains one of the most useful pieces of summer jewelry, and I would extend the recommendation to a single substantial earring (a hammered gold hoop, a baroque pearl drop). With sleeveless dresses and short-sleeved blouses, the wrist and the earlobe become the punctuation marks of the outfit. Necklaces, by contrast, can read busy against a sun-warmed neck. Bunny Williams once observed that good jewelry, like good lighting, should flatter without announcing itself. That is the bar.
9. The swimsuit question
I will not be diplomatic here. The string bikini is not the only way to enjoy a pool, and the one-piece has, mercifully, been reclaimed by the better swimwear houses. A square-neck or sweetheart maillot in a sturdy nylon-spandex blend, with a built-in shelf and tummy-control panel that is not advertised on the label, will serve you for several seasons. Lands' End and Miraclesuit both still do this well. A linen kaftan thrown over the top, and you are dressed for any porch in the South.
10. A word on the maxi dress
The maxi dress was popular in 2013 and remains popular now, which is the truest test of a garment. The current iteration is less tiered and bohemian than it was, and more columnar. A solid linen maxi in a quiet color, belted softly at the waist, will get you through a garden tour, a memorial service, and a great-grandchild's christening, in that order. It is, perhaps, the single most efficient dress in a Southern wardrobe.
What I keep in my own closet, as of June 2026
- Two pairs of wide-leg linen trousers (one cream, one navy)
- A cotton-poplin shirtdress that has been in rotation since 2018
- Three linen blouses, all the same cut, in different soft colors
- A cobalt linen blazer for the rare cool morning
- One good straw bag and one canvas tote for the farmer's market
- Two pairs of espadrilles and a pair of leather slides
- A wide-brim hat that has gone slightly out of shape, which I prefer
None of this is dramatic, and that is rather the point. Style after sixty, in summer or any other season, is mostly the absence of effort showing. Choose the natural fiber, lengthen the hem, let one piece of jewelry do the work, and walk out the door before the heat reaches the porch railing. The rest can take care of itself.
