When it comes to the weather, the MR PORTER team enjoy nothing more than shooting the breeze. Gaping out of our offices at the panoramic view of London’s Shepherd’s Bush, we could while away hours considering which precise manifestation of precipitation is currently moistening the raggedy pigeons, or whether an overshirt or jacket would suffice once you step outside our air-conditioned environs. So, you would think the recent blast of hot air to smother the city would’ve been right up our street, metaphorically as well as physically. Sadly, we, as a national collective, tend not to deal with heat too well, and chat in the office has barely risen above bickering about whose turn it is to pop out to get the rest of the team orange ice lollies. If only there was actually a breeze to shoot at, we’d be happy.

We should turn our attention to Italy, instead. Because not only are our Italian cousins more used to this sort of meteorological ferocity – although the way we’re burning through fossil fuels, we’ll just have to buck up our ideas – they also know how to dress for it.

It’s not just the lightweight material and cut of the cloth that lends the residents of the Apennine Peninsula their breezy manner, although, of course, this helps. Rather, it is the way they put it all together. Sprezzatura is the phrase we find ourselves using over and over, largely because if there was a direct English translation of the word, we’d use that instead. Roughly, it means studied carelessness, which we’d consider contrived, or call an oxymoron, which just shows you what a bunch of oxymorons we are. (Self-deprecating, too.)

In short, if you could boil down national attitudes, and we’d like to think we can – if there’s one thing the British excel at its feeble jingoism based on two-dimensional tropes (we mean, have you seen our prime minister recently?) – Italians are the people to look to when assembling a summer wardrobe.

Here then, from our virtual clothes racks, is a selection of items from the top tier of Italian brands, and therefore the ones who know what to wear better than most. Summer basics, yes, but not that you’d ever call them that.