The Chicest Way to Beat Southeast Asia’s Heatwave (Without Looking Like You Tried)
Dressing well in unbearable heat is an art—and these are the brands making it look effortless
The air outside feels like soup. The kind of thick and warm humidity that settles on your skin before you’ve even made it to your second iced coffee.
In Southeast Asia, the weather rarely offers respite—each day seems a negotiation with the sun, a careful calculation of how to dress without combusting.
And yet, some of us still want to look like we tried. Or at the very least, like we’re not slowly melting into the pavement.
Marble, drapery, and modern gods
This is your wardrobe salvation. The brands that make dressing well in this climate feel less like a chore and more like a lifestyle choice you mastered in a previous life.
COS, for one, has long had a grip on the minimalist chic market, but their SS25 collection—unveiled in an off-schedule show among the raw majesty of Greece’s Dionyssomarble Quarry—feels especially well-timed.
The setting, a sun-drenched marble landscape where the same stones once built the Parthenon, echoed the clean lines and soft drama of the collection: draped silhouettes, marbled prints that nod to Renaissance canvases, and a palette that doesn’t scream for attention but whispers elegance in linen and silk.
It’s not just about the look. It’s about the feel. COS’ commitment to architectural ease means you can look composed without ever having to suffer for it.
Like walking into a 3pm brunch, breezing past fans and sweat-drenched strangers, and somehow still looking like you stepped out of an air-conditioned gallery.
But COS isn’t alone. The heat has unofficially crowned a few other champions of cool.
Vintage whimsy
BODE has rewritten the rules of nostalgia dressing. Their linen shirts and soft tees, each embroidered with a wink of whimsy, feel lifted from a dreamy holiday in someone else’s childhood.
They’re breathable in a way that feels intimate—like a secret passed down, stitch by stitch.
Rockstar energy in tropical silk
Then there’s Amiri, the former streetwear rebel with a silk-streaked soul. Amiri’s printed button-downs bring the swagger of a rockstar to your tropical escape.
Think Mick Jagger goes to Bali—sweatless, shirt open just-so, sipping something cold under a palm tree that’s definitely not native to the region.
The shirt everyone wants
Tombolo, of course, made the shirt you probably saw everywhere—the White Lotus one, yes, that sold out faster than you could say “sustainable leisurewear.”
Their whole vibe is grandfather’s wardrobe meets contemporary whimsy. Imagine card-playing uncles at a 1960s beach club, but cooler and way more considerate to the planet. The fact that they give back with their sales is just an added bonus.
Paisley and silk
And if your idea of summer is more Aperol in hand, yacht in sight, there’s always Etro.
Their silk sets come drenched in bohemian decadence, always with a paisley swirl that suggests you could, at any moment, disappear into the Italian coast and be totally unreachable. It’s escapism, but wearable.
So here’s the thing: If you’re still clinging to that sweat-trapping synthetic shirt or your three-year-old fast-fashion tee, we have to ask—what are you doing?
This is the era of fashion that breathes, that sways, that survives the heat with style intact.
If COS is sculpting modern gods in marble, then these other labels are furnishing Olympus with silk, linen, and irreverent charm.
The heat isn’t going anywhere. But you? You could at least look like you belong in it.
Photos courtesy COS, BODE, Amiri, Tombolo, and Etro
