Same Outfit, Three Readings: Summer Accessories for Men

There is a point at which most men stop thinking about clothes. The trousers fit, the shirt is fine, the shoes are sound, and the look stays more or less the same for years. That isn't a bad position to be in. It just isn't the end of what's available.

The cheapest way to change an outfit is not a new outfit. The same linen trousers and the same white shirt read entirely differently depending on whether a flat cap, a baseball cap or nothing at all sits above them. The accessory changes the reading. The clothes stay where they are.

Dark lenses and UV protection are not the same thing

This is the one genuinely important thing in this article, and almost nobody knows it.

Tint and UV filtering are two entirely separate properties of a pair of sunglasses. The tint reduces brightness. The filter blocks radiation. A lens can have either, both, or neither.

Which creates a real problem. Behind a dark lens, your pupil dilates because the eye responds to less light. If there is no filter, that dilated pupil lets in more unfiltered UV than you would have taken wearing nothing at all. The protection you think you bought works in reverse.

The marking to look for is UV400, or "100% UV protection", usually printed on the inside of the arm. Anything without it is a fashion item, however dark the lenses are and whatever they cost.

Polarisation is a third and separate property. A polarising filter blocks horizontally reflected light, the glare that comes off water, car bonnets and wet tarmac. On a British summer road after rain, that is the difference you actually feel. It has nothing to do with UV.

On shape: round lenses soften an angular face; angular frames give a round face structure. The angular polarised sunglasses are the more assertive choice; the round polarised pair is the one that suits a squarer jaw. Both are polarised, which for driving matters more than the shape does.

The cap question

Britain has a genuine advantage here, which is that the flat cap never entirely went away and so never has to come back. It reads as ordinary rather than as costume, and that is worth a great deal.

The adjustable canvas flat cap is the summer version of it: canvas rather than tweed, so it doesn't cook your head in August. It sits comfortably with linen trousers and an open shirt, and it is the only hat in this list you could wear to a lunch without anyone remarking on it.

The leather paddy cap is the same silhouette with more character and rather less flexibility about where you wear it.

For everything else, there is the washed baseball cap. A baseball cap is never formal, but a washed one without a logo is a long way from arbitrary. The wash takes the stiffness out of the crown, which is the difference between a cap that looks worn and one that looks bought this morning. The army green cadet cap is the flatter, squarer alternative if the baseball shape doesn't suit you.

The bag argument

Summer trousers are made of thinner cloth with shallower pockets, and a set of keys plus a phone plus a wallet destroys the line of any pair of linen trousers. That's the whole case for carrying something.

The slim anti-theft crossbody bag is the one worth having in a city. The hidden-zip construction matters less at home than it does abroad, but the real reason to own it is that it is slim enough not to look like luggage. The waterproof crossbody with a charging port is the more practical version for long days out, and waterproof, in this country, in August, is not a luxury feature.

The thing nobody thinks about

Socks. Specifically, the absence of them.

Wearing loafers barefoot in August is comfortable for about two hours and unpleasant for the rest of the day, because leather absorbs the moisture and then holds it. The answer is not to give up on the look but to wear low-cut breathable ankle socks, which sit below the shoe line and stay invisible. They absorb what the leather otherwise would, and the shoes last considerably longer for it.

Three is the limit

The rule that holds all of this together: no more than three visible accessories at once. A cap, sunglasses, and a watch is three. Add a chain and a bracelet, and it's five, and at five the whole thing reads as a costume rather than a set of decisions.

The reason is unglamorous perceptual psychology. The eye looks for a focal point. With one accessory it's obvious. With two you get a relationship. With five you get noise.

Which is exactly why the same linen trousers and the same white shirt will carry three days running, as long as something different is happening above them.