As the bohemian-but-only-vaguely white blouse is a summer look that refuses to die, I suggest we embrace it. You can’t walk through a clothes shop at this time of year without racks of white cheesecloth and broderie anglaise closing in on you from all sides, like ivy. It would be quite difficult to get through summer without buying at least one. So if you can’t beat them, join them.

There is no discernible logic as to why the white blouse became a summer staple. Every so often a piece of clothing comes into fashion and then stays there. It takes up residence in your wardrobe the way a catchy song hook lodges in your head. Before you know it, it’s not a fashion piece any more, it’s a classic.

Like the skinny jean, the white blouse started out as a trend but made itself at home and became an old faithful. Every summer for the last five years, as soon as the days start getting longer, the shops fill up with white blouses of a vaguely milkmaid bent. Last year they all seemed to have pompoms hanging off them; the year before that there was a lot of cheesecloth crinkle. There was an off-the-shoulder season, and a standup pie-crust collar one. The boho white blouse has become a hardy annual: it survives the winter, adapts to the new conditions, and springs back to life out of nowhere.

What the white blouse brings to the party is wearable joie de vivre. The best clothes are those that make themselves useful, popping into your head to solve a wardrobe crisis, and that is what this blouse does. Say, for instance, you want to wear a structured skirt, like this one, or a pair of cropped trousers. You could wear a denim or khaki skirt, but you want something a bit less utilitarian and a bit more fun. Voilà.

This blouse falls into the oft-neglected category of daylight-hour dress-up. Clothes that are a bit snazzy tend to overlap with clothes that work after dark. But when you are getting dressed on a Saturday morning, say, and you want to wear something that will still look jolly for drinks at 6 o’clock, the boho white blouse gives you an option that slots between a T-shirt and a going-out top. I would steer you in the direction of a crisp, dried-on-the-line fabric over a sheer one. I’d suggest a ruffled sleeve, rather than a cold-shoulder. That way your particular white blouse will have more longevity – and longevity is what this trend is all about.

• Jess wears ruffle blouse, £270, by Frame, and skirt, £280, by Nanushka, both from net-a-porter.com. Heels, £120, dunelondon.com. Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Hair and makeup: Samantha Cooper at Carol Hayes Management