5 Must-Have Clothing Essentials to Get Before Summer Starts

It happens suddenly: You have a routine, an outfit for every circumstance. Seven days worth of appropriate clothing so you don’t lose time in the mornings to the wardrobe emergencies that happened before you stocked your closet. And then everything changes. The shirts are all too warm. You are suffering in the sun. You go to the beach looking like someone who packed wrong.

A few additions can fix this. Stock up on some breezy tee shirts. Get a shirt that’s beach worthy. Be ready for adventures that involve water and sun.

Here are five great summer solutions.

Flint and Tinder Supima Air Knit Tee

If your every morning starts with an attempt to decide what saying you would like to see emblazoned in your chest for the rest of the day, consider this assortment of deliciously airy, plain, gorgeously colored tees.

We’re all about being nerds, but a plain tee doesn’t scream “nerd!” in the same way that some of our more inscrutable reference tees do. They’re more versatile. Meeting at work? Dinner after work? Sudden date! A nice, plain tee can double—in summer—as dressing up.

You should have a few in your wardrobe. These are great. Made from baby soft Supima cotton woven to be extra airy and cool.

OAS Terry Towel Polo

You dash, dripping, out of the ocean, like a youthful Burt Lancaster in the summer before everything changed. Your date throws herself down on the sand, admiring you. “No one has ever kissed me the way you do,” she says. You kiss her again. But you are both hungry after your tryst in the waves and there’s a taco place just up the beach.

You pull on your Terry Towel Polo without toweling off because this tee is absorbent and soft like a delicious towel.

She beams at you, pleased. “So handsome!” She puts out a hand for you to help her up. Your black swim trunks now look like dress shorts. She wraps a flowered sarong around her waste and she, too, is dressed for dinner, though you are both dripping from the waves.

Grayers Horizon Summer Shirt

There is a secret to looking crisp and pulled together when the outside temperatures are soaring into Martian territory: The right fabric.

All cottons are not the same. This one is woven for a breezy lightness that looks crisp and casual but keeps you from feeling like you are being steamed alive in a plastic bag. If you have been wondering why some people take summer in stride and you suffer, look at the ingredients of your fabrics.

A light, loosely woven cotton, rendered in a subtle stripe. This will be your go-to shirt for all things summer.

Portuguese Flannel Lagoa

Not everyone is willing to wear a flashy Hawaiian shirt to the Tiki Bar. But you have to admit that an evening at the Tiki Bar does call for something tropical. This Lagoa shirt from Portuguese Flannel is a the Hawaiian shirt dialed back ever so slightly. The colors are muted. The pattern isn’t a riot of giant flowers. But it gets the message across, all the same. That message? “Thank god the Tiki Bar is open!”

Wellen Hemp Zip Hoodie

You have been in and out of the sea all day. Someone suggests a sunset sail so you all pile into the Catamaran and grab a beer from the galley. As you watch the shoreline shrink to a scene from a postcard, an ocean breeze causes you to shiver. The beer feels cold in your hand. It’s delicious, for a moment, after the heat. But you reach for this lightweight Hemp Zip hoodie. The blend of hemp and cotton is just enough to dry your salt-dipped skin and warm you so your beer is delicious again. You toast the captain—shivering in her bikini—and take a large sip as the setting sun turns the horizon into a distant fire.