Forget Jeans or Shorts: The Slip Skirt Is the Best Way to Keep Your Cool in Summer

When summer gets too hot to handle, try the slip skirt. The simple and chic piece, in knee-grazing or maxi length, is a perfectly airy middle ground between the suffocating hotness of jeans, the casual attitude of shorts, and the femininity of a dress. Its styling options are endless: One can pair the slip skirt with a slinky tank top, a no-frills T-shirt, or a modest cardigan. The versatile piece was beloved in the mid-to-late ’90s from the street to the red carpet, worn by the likes of Kate Moss, Winona Ryder, and, perhaps most famously, Gwyneth Paltrow, who immortalized the combination of a long garden-green Donna Karan slip skirt and barely buttoned blouse in 1998’s Great Expectations.

For such a comfortable piece, it’s nicely office-appropriate, too. (I myself have been wearing a black incarnation with a tank top and thong heels.) Vogue Beauty Writer Zoe Ruffner has long sworn by the silhouette, too. “Ever since the temperatures have started to rise, I’ve been putting my Protagonist slip skirts and a DKNY one that my mom saved me from the ’90s on heavy rotation,” she says. “They’re far more breezy than pants, and can offer more coverage than their scanty sister, the barely there slip dress.” In other words, don’t skirt the issue—grab one now for summer and beyond.

Here, see the best slip skirts of the season.