Few styles, many colors
Most tee collections work the other way around. Many styles, one color each, and the job of choosing falls to you every time.
This one holds a short list of styles, each repeated across several colors. The Lovey Tee runs through white, bone, black and natural haze, and the Forever Tee and the Jade Tee each come in a spread of neutrals as well. What that tells you is that these were designed to be repeated. You find the neckline and the shoulder that suit you, then you buy it again in bone, and again in black.
A basic tee earns its place through frequency. The useful question is whether you will still reach for it in eighteen months, well after the fitting room, and that is a question about cloth and construction more than about design.
Weight and hand
Price is the obvious objection on a plain tee, and the answer is in the hand of the cloth. A cheap tee thins at the shoulder, twists at the side seam after a few washes, and loses the neckline first. The neck is always where it shows.
The styles here sit at different weights on purpose. The Jade Tee and the Forever Tee are the lighter of the group, cut to sit close and to work under something. The Reese Tee is the heaviest, with enough body to hold its own shape without anything over it. The Lovey Tee sits between the two, which is part of why it runs in so many colors.
Weight changes what a tee can do more than cut does. A light cloth drapes and follows, a heavier one holds a line at the shoulder and the hem, and the same pattern in the two behaves like two different garments.
A closed palette
The colors here are drawn from a deliberately narrow range: eggshell, white, bone, blondie, haze and natural haze at the pale end, black, vintage black and twilight at the dark end, with ripple and wisteria as the occasional departures.
A closed palette does something a wide one cannot. Any two pieces from this grid will sit together, and any of them will sit over denim in any wash, which removes a decision from most mornings.
White and bone deserve a word on their own. A white tee is the hardest thing on this page to make well, because there is nothing to hide behind: every seam, every shoulder line and every bit of thinning shows immediately. The Jade Tee and the Lovey Tee both come in white, and the Lovey also comes in bone, which is the more forgiving of the two and the one to choose if you want the look without the upkeep.
Short sleeve and long sleeve
The grid is more mixed than the name suggests. Long sleeves sit alongside the short: the Quinn Long Sleeve in white and twilight, and the Lovey Long Sleeve in vintage black and bone.
They are cut in the same spirit as the short sleeve styles, plain and neutral, and they do a specific job. A long sleeve in a thin cloth is a layer rather than a top. It goes under a heavier piece without adding bulk at the shoulder, and it carries a cuff you can push up.
If you want short sleeve only, filter the long sleeves out of the grid.
What it sits with
A tee is a layer before it is anything else, and these were cut to be under and over other things.
For less fabric at the shoulder, see tanks. For anything with a collar, a button or a detail, see tops.
This grid is a narrow edit of a larger range. The full tee collection is broader, including the Calla and Faye henleys, more long sleeves, and colorways such as heather grey that do not appear here. If you want the whole picture before choosing, start there and come back.
