I wear a lot of dresses in the summer—it’s the only time of year I do wear dresses—but sometimes I want to look put-together in the way that only a pair of snappy trousers can make you look put-together. Mostly, I wear them with my ubiquitous button-downs, but I like them with more feminine tops too—the more feminine, the more interesting the contrast. I like the step hem on these.

A pretty perfect pair of cigarette pants from Veronica Beard. Here’s a cheaper and very good version from Topshop too.

These are like cigarette pants, but a hair slouchier.

I’d wear these drawstring pants on a long flight, as they look endlessly comfortable and not shleppy, as many drawstring pants do.

These are an update on the old school carpenter pants we all wore in middle school.

I felt as though I needed to include a cropped, wide-leg pant here because they’re such a big trend, and they’re a really good blue.

Nili Lotan’s Paris pant in grey is aces.

These are slightly weird but I also think they’re pretty great.

And this well-priced pair comes in a variety of colors, but I like the poppy red.

These pull-on linen trousers from Theory are so nicely tailored.

Everlane’s chino was just introduced this week, and I feel like the popular sizes are going to sell out fast, so hop to it.

A nicely streamlined cargo pant.

I couldn’t resist this happy yellow pair.

The fact that these joggers are made of silky charmeuse dresses them up quite a bit.

These frayed-hem khakis take the preppy classic somewhere truly cool.

And finally: here’s a cute casual pair for the weekends.