Late heat: linen and camp collars before the closet flips

August is a bad month to buy a parka and a good month to finish the hot-weather closet while linen is still on sale. The activity is dinners outside, last trips, and offices that never quite got the AC right. Camp-collar shirts, Irish linen, and a knit polo you can sweat in without looking wrecked are the buys.

I treat this issue as the opposite of first frost. If it needs a liner, it is September's problem. If it is a performance short with a lot of trademarks in the name, it is not journal material. Madras, gingham camp collars, and a washed poplin are.

Leave this page in the archive on purpose. Seasonal writing only works if last month still exists when the weather changes. When you come back next August, the merchants will have rotated; the argument should still hold.