Versatility and effortlessness are your best friends when it comes to dressing for summer. As much as we’d all love to exist in nothing more than our most stylish, flowy sundress from here to Halloween, that’s just not realistic. You have events, activities, and just life to live all summer, and you want dressing for everything to be as easy as sunset drinks on a patio—because TBH half the time those events are probably sunset drinks on a patio. I’ll let you in on the secret to versatile summer style: it’s the shirtdress.

Shirtdresses, like this silk maxi version by L’Agence that I recently found at Nordstrom, can be styled to suit everything on your summer calendar. Today, I’m partnering with Nordstrom and willing to prove it. The shirt dress is structurally versatile and as lovely worn in the traditional way as it is worn open, duster-style. Below, five ways to style the shirtdress to every occasion you have on the docket this warm-weather season, along with a round-up of the best shirtdresses that may or may not be currently sitting in my shopping cart. Somebody hold me back.