UK heatwave: The best and worst fabrics to wear during summer

With the UK currently enduring a record-breaking heatwave, deciding what to wear as you prepare to face the heat can be a daily struggle.

Opting to wear fabrics that trap moisture and prevent your skin from breathing sufficiently can make the heat feel even more unbearable than it already is.

However, many may still make the mistake of donning denim on the tube on a hot day, or putting on an ill-advised polyester dress.

Here are the best and worst fabrics to wear during summer. You’ve been warned!

Cotton is known for being a very favourable material to wear in most climates.

As cotton is a natural fibre, it will absorb the moisture as you sweat, allowing you to cool down at a faster rate.

However, while cotton clothes may increase your comfort in the heat, sweat patches may be fairly visible, which is why you need to be tactical when deciding on what colours to wear.

Wearing a long, cotton maxi dress may actually make you feel cooler than opting for a different item of clothing, due to the lightweight feel of the material.

Just like cotton, linen is also a natural fibre with greater absorption abilities than other fabrics.

Furthermore, linen won’t cling to your body, which is ideal when navigating a clustered train carriage on your way to work.

For those with slightly more expensive taste, silk is another comfortable material to wear as the temperatures rise.

As silk is made from the silkworm as opposed to coming from a vegetable source, it’s not as absorbent as cotton or linen.

However, it’s very appealing during summer thanks to its lightweight nature.

Choosing to wear a silk shirt rather than one made from polyester could be a very wise swap.

Jersey is a form of knit fabric that was originally made of wool, but is now manufactured from a combination of wool, cotton and synthetic fibres.

The flexibility of the material makes it a popular choice for many items of clothing, which is especially ideal when enduring sticky summer’s days.

Jersey is frequently used to manufacture T-shirts when produced with a lightweight yarn.

Now that festival season has well and truly arrived, be prepared to see numerous denim shorts and dungarees in every direction.

While denim may be a surprisingly popular summer fabric of choice, it’s actually highly impractical around this time of year.

Denim is heavyweight, not very breathable and fairly constricting, so deciding to wear your favourite pair of skinny jeans to work is definitely a gamble.

When polyester was introduced in the US, it was described as a “miracle fibre that could be worn for 68 days straight without ironing and still look presentable,” as stated by Materials World.

While it’s highly regarded for its high durability and low cost, it’s also water resistant.

This means that it won’t absorb your sweat as well as other fabrics, which will make you feel especially uncomfortable throughout the heatwave.

This may sound obvious, but you should try to avoid wearing clothes made of fleece around this time year.

Some items of clothing that are made from wool may be marketed as being suitable for wear during summer.

However, polar fleece, a fabric used to make an assortment of clothing such as jumpers and tracksuits, is made from polyester, which is why it’s best avoided.

Nylon is a synthetic material that gained renowned in 1940 when women’s stockings, otherwise known as “nylons”, began being sold nationwide in the US.

While it may be a practical fabric often utilised by sportswear brands, it isn’t very absorbent and can increase likelihood of chafing.

However, it's still used by many sportswear brands due to its elasticity.