Summer is upon us and with it the desire to finally shed multiple layers of clothing and feel the warmth of the Sun on our skin. Of course, if you live in Florida, California or some other place that is just as warm, you probably don’t get quite as excited. But what if you live in Russia? How warm are Russian summers? Are summer temperatures drastically different depending on where you are in Russia? And what do you call all the summer items of clothing in Russian? The answers to all these questions are revealed below.

Russian climate is mostly continental but average outdoor temperatures do vary. In the subtropical city of Sochi, the place of the last winter Olympic games, the average for the month of July is between 75-80F, while in the city of Vladivostok the July temperatures don’t usually rise above 65F. In any case most places in Russia allow you to show some skin during summer :-).

Thanks to Maria’s post about Russian winter wardrobe, I feel you are now well prepared for that. Now it is time to prepare you for the summer… which is so much more fun!

Let’s dive right into it by addressing bathing suits or купальники (for ladies) and плавки (for gents). Купальник consists of a лифчик (top portion) и плавки/трусы (bottom portion) or you can also say верх и низ (top and bottom).

Купальники бывают сплошные и раздельные. – There are one piece and two-piece bathing suits.

Верх моего купальника мне по-прежнему подходит, а низ стал немного маловат. – The top of my swimsuit still fits me but the bottom is now a little tight.

Swimsuits for guys are called плавки. It is worth mentioning that most Russian men are not into swimming shorts, instead they wear what you call speedos (tight bikini-like swimsuits). The bottom portion of ladies swimsuits is also called плавки, not бикини (бикини is present in the Russian language but it means a certain type of underwear, not swimwear).

The following list of summer essentials is familiar to everyone:

Гардероб – wardrobe

Шорты – shorts

Shorts in Russia are more common among women than men, in my opinion. Many middle-aged men in particular prefer not to wear shorts in public (some wear short running shorts at home or at their dacha).

Юбка – a skirt

Платье – a dress

Сарафан – a sleeveless dress with straps

Майка – a T-shirt or a tank top

Футболка – a T-shirt

Жилет/жилетка – a vest

Комбинизон – overalls (a trendy item these days)

Рубашка – a shirt

Блузка – a blouse

Ремень – a belt

Солнечные очки – sunglasses

Кепка – a cap

Туфли – shoes

Сандали – sandals

Шлепанцы – slides, flip-flops

В чем пойти?/ Что надеть? – What can I wear?

To make this vocabulary easier to digest I am including a couple of videos on the subject of summer wardrobe. By watching the videos you can also improve your pronunciation of the words mentioned in this post. For those who would like some more info on the subject of clothing this post might be interesting. P.S. The first two videos discuss summer clothing for ladies, the last one describes wardrobe essentials for guys.

Всего хорошего!