5 practical fashion tips for the summer

Unless you're a supermodel (or a masochist), the soaring mercury is directly proportional to your fast falling sartorial possibilities. Paloma Sharma lists out your options.

The Indian summer is a little too hot for it's victims to bother with looking good.

However, it doesn't necessarily have to be that way.

Discard all the fashion tips your most favourite magazines and your least favourite well-wishing relative has given you. Forget what makes you look thinner and what pattern is trending; and pay attention.

Here are five practical fashion tips that will help you be an additional cause of global warming this summer.

1. The White T-Shirt

A well fitted white t-shirt will go with pretty much everything -- from cargos with multiple pockets to a pair of messy blue jeans, not to mention a pair of hotpants.

The white tee is an all year round wardrobe must have for both women and men.

Sure, black is slimming.

But when its 35 degrees Celsius outside with overcast skies, black is also a sauna in hell.

White, however, will reflect the light and keep you cool.

(I still remember that from my 7th grade textbook. I am now awaiting my Nobel.)

The only kind of summer wear that's cooler than shorts is the vintage kind that's been frozen in a chunk ice ever since the Mammoths roamed this earth.

A light cloth would be the best choice but if you want to pull a Britney Spears and go all denim, I get where you're coming from.

And if its thigh gaps that you're worried about, please note that one is ever too fat/too thin/too tall/too short to rock a pair of shorts.

Yes! No one.

Just ask the men who walk around in boxer shorts (which are technically underwear) with unwaxed legs and all the confidence in the world.

I salute their confidence.

No, really I do.

They may look hot and stuffy on the outside but if you pair them with one of ankle-length woven socks, your feet will really be able to breathe (Inless of course if they're unwashed. In which case they'll breath like a dragon).

When choosing the perfect pair of sneakers, please walk right past the dark, chunky shoes, thank you. There are a whole lot of more fun options available.

Or, if you already own a pair of said dark, chunky shoes, you could always style them to your liking using paint and glitter.

The best part about wearing sneakers in the summer?

It's a lot easier to run away when someone is charging at you for giving them bad advice.

If you live in a tropical country, you're probably familiar with that grey area when, immediately after having a bath, you can't decide whether its water trickling down your face or perspiration.

"Don't sweat," therefore, is an absolutely ridiculous expectation during the Indian summer.

Since sweat (and the odour that goes with it) are still not acknowledged as natural things that just happen in our kind of climate, carrying deodorant with you at all times can help avoid many an awkward situation.

However, please note, if you expect the deodorant to work beyond dispelling foul odour, you can also expect to be axed from several boat parties.

If you know what I mean.

Cotton kurtas are to summer what kryptonite is to Superman.

This long, flowly garment crafted by the ancient wisdom of our ancestors -- who could've been just a little wiser and become seasonal nudists (that's the heat talking, not me) -- has it own cooling system.

Now, I'm not exactly sure how this system works, since I'm an arts wala and we hardly seem to know anything, but I do know as a long time wearer of kurtas that it is in place.

The additional advantage of kurtas is that they go with everything -- you can wear them to the office (unless of course you're an investment banker... in which case you roam around in an AC car anyway), you can turn them into casuals by pairing them with jeans, they're unisex and the best of all, you can also wear them to 'protest' hurt religious sentiments.

Kurtas truly are timeless -- both for women and men!