Best Women's T-Shirts: Cotton Tees, Striped Jerseys and Tee Dresses

A t-shirt is supposed to be the simplest thing in a closet, and yet this group proves how much room that simplicity leaves. Jenni Kayne's Claude Long-Sleeve Tee sticks close to the original idea, just extended into cooler weather with long sleeves. Doen's Vivi Tee takes the same shape and adds a striped print, proof that a basic can carry pattern without stopping being basic. Theory's Tiny Tee shrinks the proportions instead, cropped and closer to the body than a classic tee. All four start from the same rectangle of fabric and end up looking nothing alike.

Stretch a t-shirt long enough and it stops being a shirt at all, which is the logic behind this group. Jenni Kayne's Leopard T-Shirt Dress keeps the ribbed, close construction of a tee but lets the hem run to mid-thigh instead of the waist. Spanx's AirEssentials Mini T-Shirt Dress does the same trick with a smoothing fabric built in, so the shape holds without extra layers underneath. The plain tee at the other end of this group, a cotton, cashmere and silk blend from Guest In Residence, shows the fabric can carry weight even without the length. Length and fabric are doing the same job here from opposite directions.

This last group takes the tee shape and cuts it shorter or drops the shoulder line, moving further from the original idea than anything else here. Made Some's La Isla Ibiza Cotton Baby T-Shirt is the clearest baby tee of the bunch, cropped short and fitted close. Posse's La Isla Rosie top adds a dropped, off-the-shoulder neckline on top of that same cropped body, stacking two trends onto one shirt. A twisted jersey mini dress in the same group shows the shape can still stretch long when it wants to. Even at its most cropped, the tee never stops looking like a tee underneath the styling.

A tee edit this wide only works if the shirts at either extreme still feel like the same idea, and mostly they do here. The long-sleeve and classic-cut pieces are the ones worth owning first, because they are the shirts everything else is a variation on. The dresses and cropped versions are more fun but more situational, useful once the basics are already covered rather than as a starting point. What holds the whole group together is fabric more than cut, since a plain cotton tee and a cashmere-silk blend can share a silhouette and still feel completely different to wear. If you take one thing away, let it be that the shape barely matters compared to what the shirt is made of once you already own three or four in that shape. Buy the fabric, not just the cut.