Vacance Look Guide

Summer Vacation? This Is All You Need

 

I've been thinking about summer a lot lately.

Summer is the season that makes us want to leave. Leave and go anywhere. Not just because it's holiday season. I recently went through with a serious case of lovesickness, like something out of Before Sunrise except I wasn’t actually the protagonist of a film. This has made summer hotter than usual in every possible sense. I spent the early part of the season missing someone I met exactly once, somewhere far from home.

 

Before Sunrise (1995)

 

Summer does that. It pulls you out of your routine and makes you imagine new places, and a new version of yourself inside them. You picture an unfamiliar city, a beach, and before long you’re picturing who you’d be there.

Maybe that’s why summer sends us looking for clothes that suit a landscape we haven’t seen yet. Clothes for the version of us that might exist there. It’s the season we want to disappear into, because it feels like something dreamlike could happen once we get there. The writing below started as a packing list and turned into the pieces I’ll be wearing all season. A 2026 vacation style guide for everywhere between a trip and an ordinary Tuesday.

 

ⓒ@maryam_nassir_zadeh

 

The Season For Leaving

 

Lately I’m more drawn to pieces that move between a resort and real life than to anything that only works once you’re there. The whole point of vacation styling is keeping the comfort while adding that specific resort mood. If you’re unsure how to handle the line between swimwear and clothes, look at Dua Lipa, who has this down to a science.

 

©@dualipa

 

The woman is on a beach every time she gets a free week, and her formula of bikini top and denim shorts with a shirt thrown over everything is a good one. She uses swimwear as a starting point rather than an endpoint, which is exactly why the looks hold up off the sand too.

 

 

If what you actually want is the current bikini trend, go to Kylie Jenner’s Instagram. Micro bikinis, halternecks, cutouts, metallics, she gets to every silhouette first. Worth a scroll-through for the range of shapes and colors alone.

 

©@kyliejenner

 

The Vacation Essential: Swimwear

 

Get the first step right and everything after it gets easier, which means starting with swimwear. I’ve had an eye on HUNZA G lately. The crinkle fabric holds its shape without clinging, so you get the fit without feeling exposed. It reads more like a summer knit top than a bikini, which makes it an easy entry point if you’ve been hesitant.

 

©@hunzag, ©pinterest.com

 

For something trendier, Frankies Bikinis. The cuts are body-conscious and the seasonal prints go all in on florals, checks and lace. If you want a suit that smells like summer, this is the one.

 

©@frankiesbikinis

 

Gimaguas, a known Kylie Jenner pick, is the minimal option that still has presence, thanks to the eyelet detailing. Wear it alone, or style it under a linen shirt or with bermudas, and it becomes the point of the outfit instead of the detail.

 

©@kyliejenner

Bringing Swimwear Into Real Life

 

The most important part of any vacation look is the cover-up. There’s a limit to how long you can spend in swimwear alone, so what you pair it with is the whole game. One easy shirt, one comfortable pair of pants, and suddenly the look carries from the beach to a cafe to walking around in a city you don’t live in.

 

Up Top: Linen Shirts and Tees

 

Nothing earns its place in summer like a linen shirt. Thrown over a bikini it’s an instant cover-up. With bermudas or shorts it’s an entire outfit, and in aggressively air-conditioned rooms it doubles as light outerwear. Its all-purpose usefulness makes it the piece I reach for most, on trips and at home.

 

©pinterest.com

 

If a bikini alone feels like too much, add a t-shirt. An oversized tee over a swimsuit covers what you want covered while keeping that loose resort feeling intact. Match the color to your suit and you look like someone who thought about it. Treating swimwear as an inner layer is what lets a look move between the beach and everywhere else.

 

©@kyliejenner, ©pinterest.com©@lirisaw

Down Below: Layered Skirts and Bermudas

 

The trendiest way to add a point to a bikini look: tie a scarf into a skirt. Model Amelia Gray does it with boots underneath, which adds a shot of something sharper to that free resort energy.

 

©@ameliagray, ©@karishkabalaban

©@pdm.clara, ©@gimaguas

 

Denim is at its best on vacation, honestly. Pull out the mini skirt or the cutoffs you've been saving and throw them on over everything. It's one of the few places where messy hair and a low-slung waistband are the default setting.

 

©@frankiesbikinis

 

And bermudas, which I'll be wearing well beyond the trip. The knee-length cut keeps the resort mood while reading noticeably more polished. Pair them with flip-flops or slide sandals and the whole relaxed vacation thing lands, so don't neglect what's happening at your feet.

 

©@evasmota, ©pinterest.com

 

This editor's verdict: bermudas or denim shorts if you want something realistic, a layered mini skirt if you want something more feminine.

That's a lot of talk aimed at women, so let's even it out. Men, frankly, don't have to work very hard here. A decent pair of bermuda shorts is basically the entire assignment.

 

©@martin_gia, ©pinterest.com

 

Small Details, Big Summer

 

Summer mood tends to come together in the small things. A scarf tied carelessly around your head, a raffia bag, sunglasses, a cap, a bandana. Seasonal accessories are enough on their own.

 

©@gimaguas, ©@frankiesbikinis

 

Vivid micro bags in particular are made for grabbing on the way out. They hold exactly what you need for a beach day and nothing more, and the color makes the summer easier to remember later. As for raffia, it barely needs defending. Light, breathable, flexible, and tough, it looks better under direct sun than anything else you own.

 

©@loewe

 

If summer demands two accessories, it's sunglasses and a cap. Practical, obviously, but also the fastest way to make a vacation look land.

 

©@evasmota

 

Beyond blocking the sun, they change the temperature of an outfit instantly. A plain tee and shorts becomes something cooler and looser the second you add either one.

 

©@ameliagray, ©pinterest.com

©@alexanderdroth, ©@lirisaw

 

Don't forget the bandana, which pays for itself the moment it's in your bag. Every stylish woman I saw at Glasshaus in Goseong had one tied around her head. Knot it in your hair, wrap it around a bag handle, whatever. It's having a moment across the board right now, so consider one non-negotiable for this summer.

 

©pinterest.com

 

Oh, and the early-summer thing? We reconnected two months later, confirmed we felt the same way, and still couldn't make it work. I'd forgotten love could be this hard. A single reply from him could send me between heaven and hell, and I got the full sweetness and the full bitterness of it. A friend called the whole thing a midsummer night's dream and told me to let the fever go. I'd never realized the word "dream" could be that cruel. So that's my summer, filed under giving up on love.

 

©@maryam_nassir_zadeh

 

What leaves and what stays. Every meeting assumes a parting, and the moment something becomes precious you start bracing for the space it'll leave. The day I met him I bought a black t-shirt from a fast fashion store. I still think of him every time I wear it. It's the most unremarkable t-shirt in the world.

People leave, clothes stay. That's what I've decided. Anyway, I'd like this summer to end well, and I'm not sure how to make that happen. So here I am, scrolling jente with the focus of a hunter. Currently listening to DURDN's "motion," which is about drinking down a summer that will never come again.

Editor: Kim Nayoung