As the eight-year-old future King of England remarked while attending the Wimbledon finals in a full navy suit over the weekend, it is most certainly “too hot” for formal attire right now. Nonetheless, formal-ish events beckon, whether that means red carpets (for celebrities) or summer weddings (for the rest of us). And so, when it comes to warm-weather dressing inspiration, any little bit helps.
Enter actor John Cho, who is currently on the press circuit to promote his new Amazon Prime movie Don’t Make Me Go, a near-certain tearjerker that stars Cho as a single father who takes his teenage daughter on a cross-country roadtrip. While walking a red carpet isn’t quite as trying a scenario as say, sitting in the sun during a London heatwave, Cho has been demonstrating some major summertime suit moves. Think: throwing on a pair of Oliver Peoples rose-colored glasses to breeze up his maroon Fendi suit at the film’s Tribeca premiere, or swapping in a black linen button down underneath his jacket at an Film Independent screening, or summer-izing even a Officine Générale corduroy suit with a handful of undone buttons at a Los Angeles showing of the film. Lots of little flourishes to make up a sizable impact.
And because truthfully, science has not yet come up with a warm-weather equivalent that strikes quite the same note as a suit, the real secret to pulling off summer formalwear just may be, well, nailing pretty much everything else going on in your ensemble. As Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi has also exhibited over the last few weeks, suit up if you’d like—but also take this as an excuse to put a little more stock in accessories. (Try a killer pair of sunglasses or some fun jewelry.) It’s also a great excuse to try something new grooming-wise. Though Cho and Waititi are clearly blessed with incredible heads of hair, between Cho’s cool goatee to Waititi’s meticulous mustache, they’ve also both entered their facial hair groove. Who’s gonna notice a little extra sweat when there’s so much else in the mix to admire?