Office friendly shirts for summer?

April 8, 2007 4:16 PM

Where can I find good quality, short sleeved shirts for the summer? Help me be less sweaty in July!

I live in the UK, and we're supposedly heading for another summer of temperatures I can't tolerate whilst working in a small office with 15 other people and dodgy air conditioning. While I had an easy time finding office-friendly shorts last year, I failed terribly on the shirt front. Can anyone relieve my heat related discomfort?

Important information:

- I'm female
- I live in the south west of the UK
- I usually wear size 16-18 shirt sizes as I have largish boobs, and I like to avoid gaping at the front (flashing my bra to my coworkers is not an option)
- preferably white, but any other office friendly colour is fine
- needs to be short sleeved but NOT those horrible cap sleeves that seem to be so popular
- preferable maximum price range is around £30 per shirt, but happy to hear anything more or less expensive
- online purchasing is a plus, especially if they take Paypal or Visa Electron debit cards
- no eBay
- Polo shirts could also be considered, as long as they are breathable

Thank you all in advance!

posted by saturnine to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (6 answers total)

I'm a guy, but Cooltan might have something of interest. It's a limited selection of styles, but the shirts are very breathable and comfortable. And you can actually tan through them. Anyway, it's worth a look. They are definitely casual shirts, but a couple may work for office wear.
posted by The Deej at 5:01 PM on April 8, 2007

You might check out the Clearance section at Charles Tywhitt. My partner found her summer wardrobe there, and their selling their less popular polos for £7.00. Is that a cap-sleeve? I'm not sure.

Tyrwhitt makes very, very nice things, but their formal shirts are all long sleeved. Here's their regular line of polos: £29.00. These sleeves are longer.
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:24 PM on April 8, 2007

Best answer: Lands End is an American company that has a huge line of summer weight clothing. Lot's of no wrinkle cotton and cool, good looking, breathable things. I'm that size too and I really like the quality and fit of their plus size clothing. Not sure of the logistics of ordering from the UK but it would be worth checking out.
posted by pearlybob at 5:39 PM on April 8, 2007

Uh this may be an unnecessary comment but 100% silk or 100% cotton are your friend!
posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har at 5:55 PM on April 8, 2007

As is linen--Land's End ships world-wide; I stayed with a friend of the family in Osnabruck who had a German-language catalog.
posted by brujita at 9:18 PM on April 8, 2007

I disagree about silk. I have always found silk to be way too hot to wear in summer - cotton yes, silk no.
posted by wsg at 8:20 AM on April 9, 2007