Bold or vivid colors and patterns are right at home in summer. To do it well, consider employing an emphasis hiearchy. Choose a bold item to highlight in your look, and build out the rest of the outfit with more subdued pieces that enhance the bold item, instead of fighting it or compounding it:

In summer, that could mean a uniquely patterned short sleeve shirt with neutral-hued shorts or pants. Or it could be bright teal chino shorts with a white oxford shirt and brown loafers. If you’re ever looking in the mirror and unsure if you’re attempting to do too much with your summer fit, try swapping just one item for a more subdued alternative and check again. If it feels balanced and cohesive, you’re good to go. Repeat as necessary.

3. When you want more splash, turn to vintage/retro trends so you’re calling on menswear from past eras, which are inherently more dressy

The summer months can feel a little repetitive: Polo, shorts. T-shirt, shorts. Short sleeve button up, shorts.

When you want to inject a little punch into a summer outfit, my personal move isn’t to go wild with bright colors or trend-chasing styles, it’s the opposite. I like to lean on vintage or retro designs, calling on past eras from menswear.

Lots of great options have become increasingly mall-accessible over the last few summers. Knit polos with interesting textures and tipping take your standard polo look from sporty to suave. Grail brands like Todd Snyder are the go-to for celebrities and the otherwise financially inclined but more affordable options are available if you’re willing to look.

Abercrombie & Fitch has become one of my favorite summer shirt stores thanks to their rotating offering of unique, retro-inspired knit polos and button ups. The Tie Bar is probably the safest, budget-friendly option, which is something I’m excited to see.

For bottoms, flowier pants like the linen ones we recently featured instantly add a touch of retro Riviera. For shorts, going with a shorter inseam, cuffs, or pleats all introduce visual callbacks that enrich the way your shirt and footwear appear in your outfit.

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4. Add Structure to a Structure-less Season

With traditional professional and formal wear, there is an emphasis on structure and silhouette, with both virtually absent in summer clothing. On the far end of formality, with things like tuxedos, dress military uniforms, overcoats, crisp standing shirt collars, and perfectly knotted ties, sophistication is delivered with a detailed balance of rigid form and elegant drape. Drape is the quality of how clothing hangs and moves on your body.

With summer, all emphasis is placed on a flowing and rakish drape. Classic summer menswear staples include loose linen shirts and fluid, unbuttoned silk-like resort shirts. The looseness and thin material allows movement and airflow.

But sometimes that thin material can look too casual, for instance, in the collar area because it flattens out under its own weight.

A dead-simple way to dress up your summer clothing is by adding structure. For example, wearing a polo with floppy collars looks casual and possibly even sloppy. Having a linen shirt’s collar go any way it wants in the sun is fine but casual.

You can instantly add more structure with a Slick Collar, which keeps it standing tall and intentional without reducing any of the comfort we expect in summer. In fact, I always forget it’s there when I wear it.

Slick Collar requires no sewing or alterations, and is adjustable so you can use it on all of your shirt collar sizes and types. You just flip up your collar, slide it on, and flip the collar back down.

Instant structure – plus it stays in place all day and its completely invisible to anyone and undetectable by you. Each flexible Slick Collar kit comes with 3 separate sizes: Regular, for most shirts, Slim, for polos and thinner collared shirts, and Athletic, for larger shirt collars and neck sizes.

The kit also comes with 10 traditional shirt stays and is packaged in a small, metal travel storage box to make packing, even in the smallest luggage, a breeze. Primer readers save 15%!

5. Shop from the middle out

Personally, I prioritize buying things that “live in the middle.” Either because of their design or how they interact with the other outfit elements, these items can be dressed up OR worn casually. I refer to this as “shopping from the middle out.” I still buy only-casual or only-dressy pieces sometimes but I’m always drawn to this priority of versatility.

I do this all year, but it’s especially important in summer.

Unless you live somewhere hot and sticky most of the year, your summer-only clothing likely gets worn more frequently but for less of the year. This makes the case for buying not only designs that are versatile, but also nicer versions of these things. The benefit is you can then incorporate these into other seasons (linen shirts in spring, knit polos year round) even further justifying investing in these better versions.

Now you’ll start building a wardrobe that is not only easily pairable with one another within a specific season, but also when building outfits in other seasons:

One of the best parts about shopping from the middle out, is “how dressy they appear” is controlled predominantly by what footwear you choose for a Getup.

Wear a retro-inspired knit polo with beat up white vans and you have a cool, casual day look. Pair them instead with a premium suede loafer and the entire outfit feels refined and evening ready. Generally speaking, it requires more effort and expertise to take a very casual or very dressy item and pull it the other way. Beginning with a middle out mentality requires a lot less computing power when you’re rushing to pack before summer vacation.

6. There are 2 ways for combating heat when making summer outfits

More than any other season, getting dressed in the summer prioritizes reducing the discomfort of making a hot sun hotter.

You have two options for optimizing being comfortable in high heat while maintaining some semblance of your personal style: Wear different, summer appropriate items (e.g. shorts over jeans):

or wear the same thing as always but with swaps for their summer versions (e.g. linen pants over jeans):

In this outfit, I’ve swapped the white long sleeve dress shirt for a silk short sleeve camp collar shirt, the cotton dress pants for linen pants, and brown suede boots for suede loafers.

7. Embrace Jewelry

Lots of guys stop at sunglasses, wedding ring, and a watch, but accessories can add a lot to an outfit, especially a low key one, like the rectangular watch and bold sunglasses in the Chris Pine outfit I mentioned earlier.

For a long time, men’s jewelry in specific forms has only been embraced by certain subcultures, economic classes, or the fashionably fearless. In the last few years, the guardrails have really come off on what is and isn’t “acceptable” for day-to-day wear.

And it’s not just “who” can wear it, it’s how to wear it. Wearing both metal colors, multiple rings or bracelets, and simple chain necklaces can be mixed and matched as desired.

Nobody does that better than Primer style contributor Daniel Baraka, who regularly includes multiple pieces of jewelry in the outfits we feature to great effect. It never feels flashy or out of place, and we’ve previously discussed his personal connection to some of the pieces, which make wearing them that more meaningful.

Start slow and simple, if you’re curious. A narrow metal cuff bracelet or simple chain necklace adds degrees of character to a classic and minimal outfit.

What are some of your summer style tricks? Keep the list going in the comments below!