I always think of this time of year as the schmatte season: summer clothes are made of lightweight, often flimsy materials and end up trashed by Labor Day, so I don’t like to spend a lot on them. Fortunately, cute options abound, and for starters, I’m liking this fancied-up tee, which would be aces with an A-line skirt.

A striped popover in a nice light material that would look equally good tucked in or out.

This airy blouse is part of a new collection from Everlane, but it reminds me a little of an Isabel Marant top I own.

The ruffly bits here are nice and subdued, which is just how I like them.

This cowl neck tee is awfully simple and chic.

A pleat-neck top that you could dress way up or, alternately, wear with your most broken-in jeans.

I love the hit of red on this leopard print top—so graphic.

A peasant-y top with a bit of very appealing embroidery on the sleeves.

This attractive twist-hem top is from Universal Standard, which means it’s available in just about every size imaginable, and it’s a really good blue.

This drapey top looks very Maria Cornejo to me.

An organic cotton top that looks like it’d be great half-tucked into white jeans.

This poppy yellow floral with frayed details has a nice, relaxed vibe.

This rich blue top is a perfect, polished, throw-it-on-and-go kind of piece.

I really kind of want this slouchy polo shirt: it’s chic in an uptown preppy kind of a way.

A romantic little shirred tee that’d be cute under a blazer.

The same thing that makes T-shirt bras good at their jobs also makes them not very pretty: All of the lace and other bits of frippery that make bras appealing make them lumpy and bumpy when worn under a tee. Mostly they’re very boring specimens, and that’s what I usually go for. But since we have just embarked on T-shirt bra season, I thought I’d go searching for exceptions, and the best one I found was  this sexy plunge bra.

This number is from Thirdlove, a newish brand about which some people rave, and it’s pretty minimal, but I think the striped stitching detail is very chic and modern.

If it’s tough to find an attractive T-shirt bra, it’s doubly hard to find one that’s (my) flesh-colored. But the lace here is very pretty.

The mesh bits on this Chantelle bra are rather alluring.

This is just rather vampish, but in a nice, subdued way.

There is a pretty excellent sale going on right now at Nili Lotan, and while everything is still on the pricier side, the markdowns are steep, and on some pretty good pieces, like this cashmere zipper hoodie which I own and pretty much live in (truly, it is probably one of the the top 10 most-worn items in my closet). It’s super-soft, and perfectly thin and un-bulky, which comes in handy for when you’re for layering. UPDATE: This piece has weirdly disappeared from the site. See below for another pick.

I’ve got these trousers in my shopping cart at the moment, and might just go for it—they’re really well-tailored for an army pant.