At the risk of us sounding like a broken record, wearing sunscreen every single day is so important — especially as you get older and sun damage from the past begins showing up by way of wrinkles, age spots, rosacea, hyperpigmentation, and patches of rough skin. Not to mention, of course, that the risk of melanoma increases with each birthday you celebrate, per the American Cancer Society.

While there are plenty of lightweight sunscreens out there that make protecting your skin from the sun’s harmful rays an enjoyable part of your daily skin care routine, you might not have known that your clothes can actually help protect your skin, too — that is, of course, if you check out this list of sun protective clothes that will help keep you safe from the sun all year long.

Why Do You Need Sun Protective Clothing?

You might be wondering why you’d benefit from specific sun protective clothes — after all, shouldn’t any clothes covering your skin be enough to filter out the ultraviolet (UV) radiation that the sun emits?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that long-sleeved shirts and long pants and skirts can provide protection from UV rays, but it really depends on the fabric and even the color of the garment, with dark colors and tightly woven fabrics offering more protection. And your average cotton tee only provides coverage of less than SPF 15 — that number plummets if the t-shirt is wet, so you’ll want to have an assortment of sun protective gear on hand to wear whenever you step outside.

And if you haven’t gotten the memo about how important it is to keep your skin safe from the sun, the Skin Cancer Foundation notes that there are more than five million cases of skin cancer diagnosed in the United States each year, with at least one in five Americans developing skin cancer by the age of 70.

If these numbers seem eye-opening, that’s because they are: skin cancer is the most common type of cancer — but it’s also the most preventable, so daily sunscreen use, avoiding direct sunlight when outside, and wearing sun protective gear are the trifecta to keeping your skin safe.

How Do You Know If a Garment Provides Adequate Sun Protection?

Thankfully, determining if your garment provides a solid level of sun protection is surprisingly easy, with many brands like Columbia, Uniqlo, and Lands’ End offering full collections of sun protective fabrics to shop.

Much like shopping for the best sunscreen, where you keep an eye on the SPF (Sun Protection Factor) listed on the bottle to know how long your sunscreen will protect you from UV rays, sun protective clothing and accessories will feature a UPF, which stands for Ultraviolet Protection Factor and indicates how much of the sun’s UV rays are absorbed by the fabric instead of your skin. So if a garment is rated UPF 50 — which is widely accepted as the highest UPF value out there so far — only two percent of the sun’s rays can make it through to your skin. Keep reading to check out Woman’s World’s picks for the most stylish sun protective clothes to shield from the sun’s harmful rays.