Originally Posted by GrannyGear
A word in defense of cotton. Summers in the foothills of the Sierra are HOT! and, importantly, DRY not humid. My best summer "jersey" is an old, cotton T-shirt with sleeves and tail torn off and bib shorts. Lots of ventilation. The damp cotton dries very quickly but provides some cooling as it goes. Works for me better than polyester...and keeps my Fred credentials valid and no "farmer tan" which, to all native Californians, is socially toxic.
Fall comes, I go to wool, then wool with a wicking long sleeve beneath, then windbreaker, then jacket....then the cycle reverses itself to cotton T-shirt again. Can't begin to imagine Chipcom and other snow bunny types. Brrrrrrrr!
To be perfectly honest, until I moved back here to the humid north coast, my usual summer garb were sleeveless cotton shirts. I spent 10 years in New Mexico prior to coming back here. I still wear cotton/poly sweatshirts as my outer layer sometimes in early fall...wool was always too expensive until I discovered you could get merino wool sweaters cheap at the thrift shop! My favorite summer shirt is now a $79 bellana wool shirt that I ripped the sleeves off.
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