Fighting fire with fuschia

I must admit that the hardest part of the year for me to dress well is during the dog days of summer. It has officially lapsed into heat furnace mode and gotten stuck there during the course of the past two weeks or so, and in combination with a bicycle commute, it makes for a low-level sweat before I've even started work most days.

For reference, this is about what it's looked like the past couple days as I've left work...

I would say it's the humidity and not the heat, but...

At any rate, today I decided to throw caution to the wind and buck up against the sun with a combination of one of the brightest shirt and pant combos I own. It was simply too uncomfortable to wear a tie, so I left it at home.



Up top, I went with a dark pink (you say pink, I say fuschia) and white vintage Arrow gingham shirt. Below, I finally broke out the baby blue Polo khakis I got over the winter (and mentioned in this post awhile back). Tied them up with a dark brown leather belt which went with some leather PF Flyers on my feet (not pictured) of the same color.

When I first put it together, I felt like it was too outlandish, but as the day went on it felt more right. I even took a stroll in the sun at lunch (which is sometimes necessary for sanity when you work in a window-less basement) and didn't come back drenched.



I have to admit that at least part of the reason I rolled up the sleeves (besides the temperature) on my shirt is that they're simply too short for my arms, and look even more silly otherwise. I love the shirt so much that I can't bear to get rid of it, so until I find a replacement there will be bare (bear) arms to deal with.

I only caught a little bit of ribbing for the outfit, which seemed pretty reasonable in my fairly conservative town. Maybe they were right, though. Is it too much?