The importance of a good lightweight, transitional jacket cannot be overstated. These are the outfit add-ons you grab at a moment's notice, when there's a shift in the forecast you weren't anticipating, during those confusing weeks where it's no longer summer but the fall chill hasn't fully set in — or when you get that first sunny spring day that makes you forget the months of cold that came before it. They can live in your wardrobe for years and years, thanks to easy silhouettes that don't age (think trench coats, denim jackets and blazers), as trusty staples that adapt with your style or mood. And it's never a bad time to be shopping for them. 

Ahead, we've rounded up some of our favorite summer-to-fall transitional jackets that you can wear through the seasonal change as well as in the winter (with a few more layers, of course). Shop them all in the galleries below. 

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The writing's been on the wall...

Including stepped-up denim layers, classic trench coats and crochet-detailed toppers.

They're arguably the most sensible runway-approved, street-style-beloved item you can have in your wardrobe.

Because it might warm up sometime soon, but it also might not!