An 8-Piece Summer Wardrobe at Every Budget

summer-capsule-wardrobe-224584-1649683441516-main

(Image credit: @jordanrisa)

A dress, lightweight pants, a woven bag, sandals, a lightweight top, shorts, sunglasses, and a one-piece—separately, they may not mean much, but when you combine them, you have a recipe for the ultimate summer starter pack. Sure, you won't exclusively wear these items, but collectively, they're the perfect foundation for a versatile summer wardrobe. Simply integrate them with the seasonless pieces you already own, and you'll have a functional wardrobe for the next few months and even beyond. Consider it the light seasonal update your wardrobe needs to prepare it for sunny skies, tropical vacations, outdoor dining, and whatever else summer's arrival may mean to you. 

Whether you need one, own none, or have them all but are simply in the mood to refresh your look, today, I've assembled my favorites for each category at four different price points so your closet can get the seasonal update it deserves. Shop all of my curated picks, starting at less than $50, below.

Under $50

Versatile Sandals

Shorts

Dress

Woven Bag

Sunglasses

Lightweight Pants:

Swimsuit

Lightweight Top

Under $100

Versatile Sandals

Shorts

Dress

Woven Bag

Sunglasses

Lightweight Pants

Swimsuit

Lightweight Top

Under $200

Versatile Sandals

Shorts

Dress

Woven Bag:

Sunglasses

Lightweight Pants

Swimsuit

Lightweight Top

Under $300

Versatile Sandals

Shorts

Dress

Woven Bag

Sunglasses

Lightweight Pants

Swimsuit

Lightweight Top

Next up: The Summer 2022 Starter Pack: Every Cool Thing to Buy This Season

Fashion Market Editor

Indya Brown is a fashion editor, stylist, and writer living in Los Angeles. While going to school at Columbia University in New York City, she got her feet wet in the fashion industry interning at Elle magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and New York magazine's The Cut. After graduating in 2016, she joined The Cut as a fashion assistant, eventually working her way up to fashion editor. There, she worked on a multitude of projects, including styling inbook feature stories for New York magazine's print issue, writing and pitching market stories for The Cut, and serving as fashion lead for The Cut's branded content. While New York has been her home for over 10 years, she moved to Los Angeles in the midst of the pandemic in 2020 for a new chapter. Now she is a fashion market editor for Who What Wear, focusing on emerging designers, rising trends on and off the internet, interior design, and BIPOC creatives and brands. Aside from her duties as a fashion market editor, Brown is also a freelance stylist and writer, working on national print and video commercial campaigns for Sephora, The Independent, and Cadillac. Her bylines also include Harper's Bazaar, Vox, and The New York Times. But once the computer goes down and the emails turn off, she's likely eating her way through Koreatown, hunting down vintage furniture, scoping out new outrageous nail designs to try, or taking a hot cycling class.