Every guy has been there. He takes an interest in dressing better, joyously begins wearing cotton oxfords and selvedge denim. He learns the rakishness of layering with sweaters and outerwear. Then something unforeseen and terrible happens. Summer comes.

Dressing well in the heat can feel so intimidating it seems impossible. As the rising mercury steals away our layers and textures and multitude of fabrics our advances in personal style come to a grinding halt. How can you dress well when first and foremost you have to dress to stay comfortable? How can you build multiple outfits if the only items you can wear are shirts, shorts, and shoes? Listed down are few essential men’s summer fashion tips:

1. The Linen Shirt:

So much of summer style has only two goals: Be comfortable, don’t be uncomfortable. When the heat and humidity come in like a tidal wave, you have to start thinking strategically about not only what you’ll choose to wear but what it’s made out of. Linen is one of the best warm weather fabrics because it’s thin and breathes very well. On humid days, ditch the thick cotton and incorporate a linen shirt, pants, or if you’re near sand or water: both. The thing is, linen wrinkles A LOT, like… just from putting it on. Don’t get frustrated – it’s part of the package. You only need to iron it when the wrinkles turn into creases. Use your best judgement and you’ll be fine.

2. The Fitted Short Sleeve Shirt:

There’s an absurdly false style rule perpetuated on style forums across the internet that you should never wear a short sleeve button up shirt. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and by casting them aside you’re limiting your summer wardrobe even more. As with everything with your personal style, the focus to making this look sharp as hell is by honing in on the fit. Of primary concern is the looseness of the shoulders and the bagginess of the body. Similar to my polo guide above, you want a sleeve that hugs the upper arm but is not tight landing about three fourths of the way down. The body should glide down the side of your torso, offering enough room for movement and comfort but without any excess for billowing.

3. The Wild Card Shorts:

To keep things fresh with your summer wardrobe I like to include something I call The Wild Card Shorts. These are a detour from your other flat front shorts. While the fit should remain the same, by having a pair of shorts that experiments with texture, material, or pattern you can build entirely different getups with the same shirt and shoes. A side note: the lighter your shorts get, the harder it will feel to pull off. By introducing texture and a different drape with the linen, the lighter colour doesn’t feel too light.

4. The Canvas Sneaker:

Second to none in versatility and style is the canvas sneaker, with the beige canvas sneakers, the outfit is grounded as well-dressed casual. To take an extra step away from just sneakers towards intentionality. Let your ankles witness the world by going sockless. If sneakers without socks sound miserable, pick up some no-show socks that sit below the shoe opening.

5. The Webbed Belt:

When you have a solid colour shirt and a solid colour pair of pants, you need to introduce some visual variety. Taking a cue from the NATO strap watches, you can employ a webbed belt, also commonly called surcingle or cotton, which can lighten a look with a solid colour or add depth with a pattern like stripes. Be careful though: You don’t want to get too matchy-matchy with your watch strap and belt, they should both complement the outfit, not each other.