This summer, you should wear tank tops on top of each other Heat can do nothing against the power of layering

What's better than a tank top in summer? Easy: two tank tops. Or a tank top and a t-shirt, or even a tank top and a sheer top. What already seemed, across the SS25 and FW25 collections, to be one of the most interesting styling tricks around the simplest garment of summer has become a far more recognizable trend in 2026. Nearly twenty different brands had proposed, in both menswear and womenswear styles, both formal and sporty, the same idea: wearing a tank top with another layer underneath or on top, without concealing the shape of the tank top itself, whose silhouette and colors play off in contrast with that other layer.

A role in the emergence of this trend was initially played by the appeal — riding the long wave of the Y2K macro-trend — of layering clothes to create that "messy but authentic" feeling that highlights textures and draping over the actual appearance of the garments themselves. Think, in menswear terms, of early-2000s Brad Pitt with his combos of long- and short-sleeved t-shirts, or vests over tees, paired with tinted glasses and mega cargo pants. A sense of studied disorder that by 2026 has moved well beyond simple Y2K nostalgia to become a genuine styling principle. But how have fashion brands interpreted this trend?

There is certainly a marked difference from one brand to another, as well as between menswear and womenswear solutions. Among the womenswear collections, for instance, the range runs from the extreme sophistication of Fendi's SS25 — where an appliqué-covered tank top is worn over a blouse in the same chiffon — to Prabal Gurung's combination of a cut-out tank top with a wide-open fitted undershirt; through to the great simplicity of Miu Miu, one of the trend's great champions, and MM6 Maison Margiela, where the crumpled tank top appeared almost attached to a second, sheer tank top — and also Sandro, where the pairing is kept very simple and executed with everyday, ordinary pieces.

True to his aesthetic of the worn-in, Marco Rambaldi placed the tank top beneath a sheer sweater whose sleeves, however, were knotted around the chest — a similar and perhaps even more natural solution came from Marques'Almeida, while The Row layered two progressively sleeveless pieces over a black t-shirt, concluding with a hybrid between a tank top and a halter top. The most original, however, were Natasha Zinko, who made extensive use of the concept by layering a grey tank top over an outerwear piece (it looked like a shirt but wasn't), and above all Wiederhoeft, who created a kind of sporty corset worn over a classic tank top.

Menswear took a simpler approach: while Dries Van Noten, in his final SS25 show, placed a kind of cape in weightless sheer fabric over a black tank top, the most inventive was Simone Rocha, who adorned her tank top with iridescent ribbons in the shape of stylized flowers. And while Songzio, Bluemarble and Pronounce interpreted the theme without excessive flourishes — as did Maximilian Davis at Ferragamo, with as many as three layers — the most original was undoubtedly Heliot Emil, where the white tank top served as the final layer in an entire architecture of featherlight white layers, culminating in an ultra-lightweight rain jacket. The solutions adopted are many, and a year on, what seemed above all like a runway experiment has evolved into a styling trick that is increasingly common outside of collections as well.

Certainly, when the real heat arrives, wearing more than a single layer will be unbearable for those most sensitive to temperature — but for the sake of style, one does what one must. It's almost as though, by doubling or tripling it, the tank top manages to shed its rawer, and if you will, more objectifying connotations, taking on the literal substance of an outfit: alone it's just a tank top, but in twos or threes it most definitely becomes a look. Another considerable challenge will be finding two tank tops that can be layered without major stylistic dissonance — managing fit and fabrics won't be straightforward, since everything depends on exactly that. On the other hand, though, the messy look of summer 2026 seems to have found in tank top layering one of its simplest and most effective tricks.