This breathable $95 dress shirt mimics silk and wicks away sweat in oppressive heat

Ministry of Supply

Ministry of Supply makes some of our favorite performance workwear. It’s breathable and low-maintenance without sacrificing style of professionalism.
The Juno Tailored Shirt is my favorite dress shirt because it’s sleek, stretchy, easy to care for, and tucks well into pants.
The shirts drapes like silk, but the material comes without any of the cons of silk. During hot spells like an NYC heatwave, you’ll be most grateful for how it wicks moisture.

Last week, a heatwave passed through New York City, bringing with it a stifling onslaught of temperatures in the high-90s that felt well above 100 degrees.

Even when the outside felt like a convection oven, I still pulled on a nice button-up and headed out the door — walking 20-minutes in the dead heat before standing on a subway platform with a throng of other New Yorkers, each producing their own small cloud of heat, sweat steadily dripping down my spine and grimy puffs of untraceable exhaust floating from the ground.

But, last week when I pulled on the new version of my longstanding favorite button-up Ministry of Supply’s Juno Tailored Dress Shirt ($95), I didn’t find myself ever visibly wet with sweat. I was still sweating, but the fabric was wicking it away effectively enough to prevent dark splotches and clammy material.

Ministry of Supply

Typically, I wear the Juno Tailored Dress Shirt because it’s so sleek. It’s smooth, effortless, figure-flattering, and tucks into pants with minimal bunching. The designers built in flattering structural cues like darts at the bust and elongated cuffs that help the fabric fall in a pleasing way.

But, it’s also made of a technical fabric (10% spandex, 90% polyester) that does a great job of wicking away moisture — so I was showing up to work in 98-degree weather with a clean shirt even if my face still dripped with sweat. It’s not as breathable as cotton, but it’s also never felt damp. I’m going to sweat on a subway platform in 90-plus-degree heat, but the difference is that this shirt recovers immediately. Plus, the spandex makes it feel like you could do karate in it.

Like much of Ministry of Supply’s gear, the Juno does look, upon close inspection, like it was designed by a team of former MIT classmates. The fabric is stretchy and soft and a little surprising — not aesthetically utilitarian as something billed as strictly "technical" but definitely special — and was engineered to mimic silk (minus the high-maintenance care) with a fine- and high-thread-count yarn. In practice, that really just means it can be machine-washed and feels soft, drapes exceptionally, and tucks into pants seamlessly.

It’s also exceptionally low maintenance. Unlike silk, you never need to worry about dry cleaning or packing it. It’s machine-washable, and, even if you pick it up crumpled from the floor and throw it on, the major wrinkles tend to fall out after about 15-20 minutes of contact with body heat.

In general, it’s my favorite work shirt because it’s equal parts flattering, easy to care for, stretchy, and tucks into pants like I wish all shirts tucked into pants. But until you endure a New York City heatwave, you forget that its superpower is actually drying instantly.

Ministry of Supply Juno Tailored Dress Shirt, $95