Everything at the bottom of this edit is cotton, linen or a linen blend, and that is not an accident. Synthetic fibres are the single fastest way to make a summer outfit look wrong, because they hold heat, they do not crease in the way the eye expects, and they photograph shiny. Linen creases and that is the point. If a piece is described as linen look or linen touch, it is polyester. The colour list is equally short. White, ivory, sand, navy, a blue stripe and a check are the entire vocabulary here, and once you accept that, an eight piece capsule covers a fortnight. Where the cheaper pieces earn their place is in tops and shorts, the items that get worn wet, sat on and washed constantly. Spend the least here and expect to replace them. Check the lining on anything white before you buy, because a single layer of white cotton in bright sun is a decision you make in the changing room, not on the beach.

Several of these come as a top and a bottom in the same fabric, and the temptation is to wear them together on day one. Resist it for a week. A check bustier with plain white trousers and the matching check short with a plain shirt gives you three outfits out of two purchases, where wearing them as a set gives you one. The sets worth buying as sets are the ones in a fabric you would not otherwise commit to, an embroidered poplin or a heavy stripe, because the pieces genuinely look better together than apart. The ones to split are anything in a small repeating check or a fine stripe, which read as separates all day. This middle band is also where the dresses start, and a linen mini or a stripe midi is the single most useful thing you can pack, because it needs no styling decisions at eight in the morning.

At the top of this edit you are paying for construction that survives being packed. A poplin corset, a good leather shoulder bag and a proper resort dress are the three items that make a suitcase work, and all three share a quality: they come out of the bag needing nothing. A structured corset holds its shape in a way a soft cotton top will not. A leather bag in a warm neutral goes from lunch to dinner without a swap. Sunglasses at this level are worth it for the lens rather than the frame, and a real polarised lens is the difference between squinting all afternoon and not. What we would skip in this band is the very delicate embroidered piece you will wear once. It photographs beautifully and it will spend the rest of the summer in a garment bag.

The Hamptons look is easy to buy and easy to get slightly wrong, and the tell is always the shoe. A flat leather sandal, a raffia mule or a plain flip flop in a good material finishes this palette. A heeled sandal with a wedge or a platform pulls the whole thing towards a different decade and a different coast. We would spend on one dress, one bag and one pair of sandals, and buy everything else at the cheap end, because the tops and shorts here are essentially consumables. We would also say plainly that you do not need the matching set, and that the single best value item in this edit is a plain white linen mini dress, which will outlast every trend piece next to it. If you take one thing away, pack a colour list rather than outfits. Three colours, natural fibres, and everything in the case will go with everything else.