I live in a place where the summers tend to be beyond hot, and I work outside for at least 20 hours a week in direct sunlight. So as a starter, get your body used to wearing jeans if you don't wish to wear shorts. If you do, I've seen a really cool look of pairing shorts with paterned tights. But for me I despise shorts with a passion so I wear jeans and dresses all summer. Mainly, what i would recommend is a lot of airy layers and cotton. I tend to pair a cotton skirt worn as a dress with a velvet vest/corset and I usually am cool and comfortable. Also I would recommend flowy blouses. I have naturally pale skin, and if I don't wear sun screen and cover up as much as posible, I burn and stay as red as a tomatoe all summer long. Parasols help a bit too in keeping you cooler. I hope these tips helped a wee bit. Good luck!

Know of any place to get parasols that would work for the goth look? Usually the ones I find are either mundane or that lolita style, in which I find most of lolita too fancy for me.

Um I've been on a similar search for a nice parasol. At the moment I have a lolita one which I only use when I go on walks due to the fact that is pink and blue. I bought in when I was pretty young, so it is my emergency one until I can afford a nice parasol. Here are some websites, I hope it helps

http://www.pamelasparasols.com/New2010/ ... /anna.html

Of course this only comes in white because it is a wedding style one, but I love the little canopy that comes down.

http://www.amazon.com/Cathedral-Umbrell ... B00164J13G

Tis a rain umbrella, but it serves the same purpose,no?

A shame the amazon one is out of stock. Looked like a good one.

I was devastated when I realized it was out o stock. Tis gorgeous

Ain`t that always the way? They stop stocking the good stuff...

I believe that the second I love something in a store a thousand little gremlins buy whatever I like so that I cannot have it. But I have seen quite a few parasols that i really liked, sadly most of them are over $40.

If you start hitting antique shops & flea markets you might luck into a cheap antique one. Expect the cheap ones to have condition problems like needing to have all the fabric replaced, and expect the expensive ones to be so fragile they could tare apart if you look at them wrong.

As long as it is at least one complete section [shaped kinda like a pie slice] is intact you could theoretically use it as a template to make the missing or torn ones depending on how good you are with sewing.

An other way is to get one that has all the fabric present, if weak or torn here & there but good enough to almost open and then tie string from each point of the frame [when fully opened the distance between two points should be the same all the way around]. Depending on how badly damaged it is & how complicated the frame is you might have to do this circumfrance at different lengths of each frame arm. Then you could sew fabric over that by hand until it looks right. As long as it is sturdy to open/close, use in wind etc, if it doesn't look great you can always put a layer of lace over it to hide the trouble spots. One of my parasols I fixed this way and its the only one I feel comfortable leaving in my car 24/7 because I know uv & heat won't kill it since the fabric is [almost] all new. I have some 100% silk ones but, being 120+ years old I always worry about a big unforeeen breeze whipping threw and taring them apart. Vintage umbrellas can be a good starting point if you're going to redo them since the only "real" difference between a parasol and an umbrella is the handle & the fabric used [parasols aren't water proof, and don't like water]. I say "vintage" because most umbrellas & parasol repros today have very few "pie slices" to their frame designs, unlike older stuff where you might have 16, 20, etc "pie slices" to the frame. If you're real lucky you can find one where the handle is easily removed & find an antique parasol handle to put on it.

Well, the physics explains that black is actually the ideal colour for summer (explanation in plain speech), and I second those who've suggested loose clothing. Also black clothing is a more effective sunblock than white clothing, due in part to the physics explained in the article. TL;DR version if the article is that while black clothing absorbs heat, it works both ways, siphoning heat away from one's body as well as away from the air around oneself; the inverse is thus true of white and light-coloured clothing, in that heat from one's body is reflected back onto one's body, gradually heating one up more.

Other than loose, flowing clothes, stay inside and crank up the A/C whenever possible, and if A/C isn't possible (the house I'm in doesn't have an A/C and is old enough that the windows can't really support one --and free-standing A/C units cost more than I can afford ) just stick with a bunch of fans, positioned for optimum cross-breeze; get at least a couple that are designed for windows (like this one, that I have) and set one side for intake and the other for exhaust --and make sure to dust it out, regularly. The bladespan is small, but it makes a difference. If you have a lawn or garden, look for any excuse you can to turn on the sprinkler and sit in a lawn chair or on the steps.


Ah! Beat me to it.

Good point about the psychology involved, since it's well-established that one's mind can make one believe things that aren't happening are, but in my own experinces, I've noticed the article to be true in spite of about three decades of parents and teachers spouting the common wisdom that my clothes were somehow baking me during the summer.

I try to adapt with shorts and short sleev e clothing.

Lace Parasols is where I got my parasol/fan set. They have many to choose from, and the quality is good. Shop away!

I am sensitive to both heat and light (my optometrist confirmed my light sensitivity recently with a scan of my retina).

I dress mostly in dressier clothes and tend to stick with a businessy look. I find that as long as I wear lighter materials and suits with lower thread count, I can typically stay pretty cool. A nice hat and sunglasses go a long way in helping me cope with the sun and the heat. I do have a couple of very light linen shirts that are black. They aren't my favorite but work when things are really hot and I still want to wear a lot of black.

For those who wear edgier stuff, it can be tricky. For guys, army surplus stores have nifty black army/industrialish shorts and boots that can be nice during the heat. I don't like wearing short clothes during the Summer's just because I burn easily, personally.

My skirts get longer the hotter the weather gets for that reason. There's also no good way to reapply sunscreen while wearing nets.

I like Hell Bunny's cotton sun dresses. They come in nice prints and are really comfortable, so you can stay true to your dark side even in the sun. ^__^

In the past few years, when summer came along I was wearing mostly black clothes all day and it was hard for me to handle the heat.Now I'm trying to wear something colorful in the middle of the day and in the evening when it's not so warm i wear black jeans and black top. Regarding the boots, sincerely, in the summer i wear them only at concerts. Sneakers are doing their job very well right now!

Btw, LegendGirl, those parasols are gorgeous!