Tops

Tops at Armen Clothing is where the everyday half of a wardrobe lives — camis, tanks, halters, tube tops and long-sleeve knits, picked by a clothing store on NE 8th Street in Homestead, Florida for women who dress for heat most of the year.

The fabrics do the sorting. Cotton, rayon and viscose blends carry the pieces meant to be worn against skin in July; lace, crochet and eyelet handle the evenings when a plain shirt is not quite enough; nylon and spandex sit behind the ruched and ribbed shapes that need to hold their line. Colour runs quiet on purpose — black, brown, cream, white, ice blue and baby pink — so anything here goes with the denim already in the drawer.

Necklines are the other way in. A halter or an off-shoulder cut leaves the shoulders open for dinner outside; a square neck or a keyhole reads considered enough for a working day; a plain full-length cami disappears under everything else and does the layering nobody notices. Most of these wash, dry and go back on the following week without ceremony, which is the point of a shop that sells to the same neighbourhood twice a season.

Start with the plain ones and add the detail later — that is how most people build a rack of Tops that actually gets worn.