Summer dressing, by and large, is a relatively straightforward undertaking. As long as your provisions include a steady supply of T-shirts, a couple of pairs of shorts and perhaps a linen blazer or two thrown in for good measure, you’ll be able to handle almost anything sunny weather throws your way. Or if not anything, certainly an extended session in the pub beer garden.

This, alas, is where you may run into trouble. Wearing more or less an identical warm-weather uniform to the male masses is no fun, which is why it pays to distinguish yourself. When it comes to menswear, the details matter. It might be a tired-out truism, but that doesn’t make it any less true. And so, to aid you in your endeavours, we’ve put together a cheat sheet of the accessories, shoes and even scents that’ll help you separate yourself from hordes of similarly dressed gents. Let’s get cracking.

There are two possible avenues available to you when it comes to selecting sunglasses this season; the bold and the brave among you may wish to follow Balenciaga and Gucci’s lead and sport Matrix-style goggles or wraparound lenses in eye-grabbing highlighter tones. But if you’re after something subtler, we suggest taking the path less travelled and opt for pale and interesting frames. Instead of opaque black or tortoiseshell acetate, pick a translucent acetate with just the slightest hint of pigment – peachy-pink from Garrett Leight California Optical or steely grey from Brioni, for example – to soften rather than totally obscure your features.

Can you imagine the uproar just a few years ago if, with summer fast approaching, we recommended that our readers should go out and buy themselves a belt bag – otherwise known as a fanny pack or bum bag – for their upcoming holiday? We’d have been accused of losing our collective minds. Today, however, the accessory that used to operate solely as a tourist identifier, makes for the ideal vacation bag for style-conscious travellers. It’s light and compact, yet will still hold everything you need for a sojourn around the city or stroll along the beach. And this season, it comes in a full spectrum of shades – Pop Trading Company, Dries Van Noten and Maison Margiela offer the boldest of the bunch.

What defines the perfect summer scent? Crisp? Cool? Floral or citrusy? Aromatic or herbaceous? The right answer, as with most things as personal as fragrance, is whatever works for you. As a general rule, though, the perfume you pick for the warmer months should be lighter and altogether subtler than those heady, woody scents you spritz yourself with when it’s colder. And, of course, there’s no reason to restrict yourself to just one. Classicists won’t go wrong with TOM FORD BEAUTY’s Costa Azzurra, a balanced blend of zesty lemon and calming cypress oil. But for something a little different? The namesake scent in Diptyque’s Eau de Minthé – that’s mint, for you non-Francophiles – will provide a refreshing hit on balmy days, while Byredo’s Sundazed has a fresh mandarin haze with sweet undertones of candy floss (yes, really).

We don’t need to tell you that wearing a dress watch on the beach is a big no-no. For starters, only a small minority of them are waterproof. And highly intricate mechanical movements that take months to build by skilled hands don’t tend to fare well when you introduce them to seawater. Unless, of course, said mechanism is safely housed within the watertight case of a diving watch. Aside from the tell-tale presence of a unidirectional rotating bezel, the easiest way to tell you’ve got something seaworthy on your hands (or wrist) is in the name: Breitling’s Superocean, TAG Heuer’s Aquaracer and Bremont’s Waterman can sustain depths of up to 200m, 300m and an impressive 500m, respectively. One final word: take note of the strap, too. A woven Nato, Kevlar or stainless-steel bracelet strap are all solid options.

With the arrival of summer comes the happy news that it’s finally time to lose the lace-ups. Proper shoes are all well and good, of course: nobody wants to wade through slush on the way to work with nothing but sandals on their feet. But when the risk of frostbite fades and the sun starts to shine, there’s something liberating about being able to slip into something a little less restrictive. The excellent thing about the trend for robust sporty sandals – as seen in the latest summer collections from Fendi, Dries Van Noten and Hender Scheme – is their track-like treads, which are more than capable of traversing a variety of terrain, from city pavements to sandy shores.