Eugénie Trochu is a Who What Wear editor in residence known for her transformative work at Vogue France and her Substack newsletter, where she documents and shares new trends, her no-nonsense approach to fashion and style, plus other musings. She’s also working on her upcoming first book that explores fashion as a space of memory, projection, and reinvention.
There’s a heat wave warning in Rome this weekend, the kind of heat where even the stones seem to be sweating. I had packed sensibly enough: a few lightweight shorts, flat sandals, sunglasses large enough to cover half my face. Yet one question kept coming back every time I stood in front of the mirror. What do you wear on top when it’s 38°C (100°F), you’re walking around the city all day, and you don’t particularly feel like showing your midriff to hundreds of tourists?
Somewhere between the ribbed tank top that eventually starts looking like underwear and the oversize shirt that sticks to your back after 20 minutes, there is a middle ground, a category of tops that can survive a heat wave while still looking somewhat put-together.
This year, I’ve found myself drawn to things that feel slightly old-fashioned. Prints that look as though they’ve escaped from a 1950s family photo album. Gingham, tiny checks, miniature florals. Lightweight cotton poplin tops that keep their shape even when they’re wrinkled. A touch of lace, a little crochet, some broderie anglaise.
I especially love small sleeveless tops buttoned down the front that vaguely recall childhood blouses, only simpler. They work with absolutely everything.
Gingham has become my ally again in washed-out red, sky blue, and biscuit beige—something fresh, cheerful, and far more suited to extreme temperatures than black, which inevitably gives me the air of a Mediterranean widow in the middle of August.
I’ve also surprised myself by gravitating toward white cotton tops trimmed with a little lace. They’re not overly romantic. It’s just enough to suggest an Éric Rohmer heroine who happened to book an EasyJet flight to Rome. They possess that rare quality of looking polished without appearing to require any effort at all.
And then there are mineral shades. Chalk, sand, eggshell, pale clay, faded sage, dusty blue. Colors that seem as though they’re feeling the heat too.
In the end, the formula that worked best during this Roman weekend was remarkably simple: a sleeveless poplin top, denim shorts, flat sandals, a few pieces of gold jewelry, and hair pinned up without much thought. The hotter it gets, the more convinced I become that true sophistication lies in simplicity.
French girl–approved summer tops:
