The whole point of holidays is that you get to make joy and fun the main event. On holiday, having a lovely time is basically your job. And you know what they say about jobs, right? You should dress for the one you want. So on holiday, if you want to have a really super lovely time (which I’m thinking is a yes) then start by dressing for it.
That means forget about being taken seriously for a bit. On holiday, in fact, you want to dress to be taken as unseriously as possible. That way, everyone around you will understand that you have taken a hard time out from your to-do list, and that your decision-making responsibilities are zero (except in the ice-cream parlour). Lean in to dresses you can take a nap in (a whole genre of flowing dress known, incidentally, as nap dresses), a thin silk scarf you can tie your hair up with, and shoes you can kick off to paddle in the sea. Become the Sheryl Sandberg of broderie anglaise dresses and shorts you made out of last year’s jeans. Dress for joy, dress for fun.
There is a closed-circuit, energy-saving kind of safety to wearing the same thing every day when the days are just work days to be gotten through, but holiday days are different. None of us get enough of these days in a lifetime to take them for granted, so it’s nice to get dressed in a way that reminds you to relish them. I don’t mean just the days you are away on your actual holidays, by the way – I’m also talking about weekend days when the sun comes out and it would be a crime to waste these hours cleaning the washing machine filter or whatever you were planning on doing, so you take a blanket to the park instead. Sometimes those bonus days are even better than being on actual holiday, a lucky windfall from the gods.
Holiday dressing should not be too sensible. Sure, you need to cover your shoulders so they don’t burn or whatever, but the main event here is fun, remember. So now is a good time to engage with the sillier side of fashion. I don’t mean order lots of microplasticky rubbish off the internet obviously, I just mean get your head up and look around you and see what’s happening style-wise that might be fun to engage with.
Baseball caps, for instance. Like, I know Succession is over but it has left us with a legacy of baseball caps for grownups, and I’m into it. Straw hats, charming on other people, make me look like a period drama extra so I am delighted to jump on the baseball cap bandwagon. I put one on for the first time in years and it just felt right, somehow – like a word that had been on the tip of my tongue had just come back to me.
When the sun shines, you can also switch up your whole look by changing your shades. Can I propose that you consider the case for white or pale-framed sunglasses? I’ve always been a classic-black-only girl when it comes to eyewear, but when I mislaid my vintage Versace favourites recently (I found them, two weeks later, in the dog’s basket, but that’s another story) I started wearing these creamy ones from & Other Stories, and was pleasantly surprised by the newness every time I looked in the mirror. (Also, they are made from recycled materials, and are £27, which is good if you are the sort of person who finds their sunglasses in the dog basket.)
One more thing: long shorts. I’m not a miniskirt person and after a decade of maxi skirts … well, sorry, but they bore me to tears. A knee-length hemline can look a bit twee in the summer, a bit sightseeing-tour, if you know what I mean. So I’m experimenting with a longer-length short, to just above the knee, which is everywhere this summer. You know, for fun. I know fashion trends aren’t a thing any more but, hey, it’s summer. And you know what that means? We are not serious people.
Hair and make up: Carol Morley at Carol Hayes Management. Model: Aster at Body London. Sunglasses: Gucci. Dress: Wiggy Kit
