The tees you need to buy now.

We’ve now passed the summer solstice – we are officially, in the Northern Hemisphere, at least, in the summer season proper. And while we’ve been banging on about summer wardrobes and shorts and sunglasses and linen trousers rather a lot over the past few weeks, we’ve overlooked one of the summeriest items of all: the T-shirt. The T-shirt evolved from humble roots as an undergarment to become a casual wardrobe staple that was comfortable, easy to clean, and, from hippyish tie-dye tees in the 1960s to political slogan tees in the 1980s, was the gateway to sartorial self-expression.

Nowadays, things in the T-shirt world have diversified a bit, and this season’s short-sleeved T-shirts aren’t adhering to any trend – instead, the overarching theme at the moment seems to be that there isn’t one. From the elongated crew necks at Rick Owens to Dries Van Noten’s eye-print tee and Craig Green’s boxy model rendered in thick jersey and complete with hanging poplin ties, the T-shirts around right now are all about the details. They’re relatively easy to style, too: wear them with cropped chinos and white sneakers for a preppy summer look, or layer them under an open shirt when the mercury drops.