The Summer Midimalist

Today marks the unofficial start to summer. For my U.S. readers, it’s the Memorial Day holiday and my kids finished school on Friday so there’s a real school’s out for summer feeling in my house. I know that there are plenty of places where kids are still in school and the weather is not cooperating but I still feel like we can all agree that we are ready for summer vibes.

I’ve been ready for summer for a few weeks now and my algorithm is cooperating by sending very fun warm weather looks into my feed. I’ve heard it said that we all identify with a certain season and I am 110% a summer girl. I love being outside, showing a bit more skin, embracing fewer layers and leaning into the FUN of getting dressed. As I started to roughly moodboard what I wanted summer to look and feel like for me, I noticed in my inspiration 3 Points of the Midimalist Summer Style (we’ll call this the 2026 edition because I did write about my summer uniform in 2025).

It can be harder in the summer to create visually interesting outfits when, naturally, our outfits are more pared back. Irene Kim (김애린) taught me that each piece of a summer outfits should add impact to a look. I’m not trying to complicate summer dressing but, instead, be strategic about the pieces I wear. No one needs a checklist in the summer so think of this as more a check-in.

When I look at the outfits that inspire me, I noticed they have at least one thing that is doing something visually (aka a point). Think of it as a Venn diagram- three circles, each representing one point. Some days I might choose one point or two, but in the center of the overlapping circles are the outfits that are giving me a jolt of excitement.

The 3 Points are;

1. Color

2. Texture

3. Volume Contrast

These points cover the trends I tend to see in summer and can fit any aesthetic. You’ll see, throughout this newsletter, that the points can be as nuanced or in-you-face as you want them to be and, of course, we are counting accessories as a means for accomplishing any of these too.

I’ve been on a real color journey… if you’ve been here a while, you know I used to live in neutrals and slowly, almost accidentally, fell completely off the wagon. Remember my obsession with blue? The pink pants I can’t stop wearing? Yeah, I’m in it deep. No wonder this is the first thing I’m drawn to in summer outfits.

For the more minimal-leaning Midimalists, summer color can mean washed blues and greens, butter yellow and pink. Or we can go bold with poppy red, cobalt or, the color of the season, chartreuse.

This doesn’t have to mean wearing something loud, I promise. Some of my most color-averse friends have been converted by a colorful shoe, a beaded necklace or just a great nail polish color. And honestly, it makes so much sense in summer specifically because so many of us default to white (guilty), and a pop of color is just chef's kiss against it.

There’s room to play; we can go full-send on color or add one pop of color or land anywhere in-between. Around this time last year I wrote my tips for staying true to yourself when adding color. I re-read it and (at the risk of sounding cheesy) it’s still holds water!

Color for the Midimalist

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May 19, 2025

Here’s something you must know about me. I feel most comfortable in an all-black outfit. Day or night; Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter- there’s not an occasion that I don’t love an all-black outfit for. But. Buuuuuut.

Following my own advice of keeping silhouettes simple and sticking to a monochromatic outfit, I wore this the other day and it felt very SUMMER.

But I’ve also had more minimal looks that just had pops of color like this look the other day when I couldn’t decide which shirt to wear and, when I asked my internet friends, the verdict was split.

Some textures that are summer staples at this point; linen, cotton voile, raffia, crochet. They’ve always belonged to this season. They add dimension and richness AND they likely already exist in your closet.

But there are other textures that are more recent additions to our collective summer vocabulary like jelly, sheer, fringe, beads, mesh and satin. Honestly, I’m excited to play with these this summer.

I love wearing texture in the summer because they take a simple piece and make it dynamic. A textured piece in the summer sort of feels like it does the work that layers do in the winter.

Did you spy the texture in my pink outfit? Silk taffeta for the win. I think pull-on-pants have an inherent ease to them and I’m trying to capture that year-round and, especially, in summer.

So we've got color doing the heavy lifting visually and texture adding richness and dimension. The third point is a little different because it's less about the fabric and more about the form.

I almost called this final point “show some skin” but it’s more nuanced than that. The summer looks that make me feel best almost uniformly contrast volume; either showing more skin on top or on bottom. Pieces either carry Big-Baggy-Energy (BBE) or Itty-Bitty-Energy (IBE) and I like an outfit with a little bit of each. And this tracks with my shorts formula which was about strategically balancing skin coverage.

Oversized pieces have a cool, unbothered air that I’m deeply obsessed with right now. I, especially, love a baggy pant or flowy skirt in fabrics that are breathable for summer (see point 2!). And if the bottoms are going to have BBE then the top can have IBE!

Case in point, this perfect look. Does anyone know who this fabulous woman is?!

Alternatively we can let our stems out with IBE in the bottoms and BBE on top.

With my 3 points in mind, let’s see how they show up in looks. As I said at the top, there is no checklist here. Some days one point is exactly enough. Other days you'll want all three. Either way, I hope this gives you a framework that makes summer dressing feel exciting rather than like another thing to figure out.

I know this is a newsletter about clothes/styling/etc. but I would be lying if I said I was fixated on anything but the Summer House reunion that is airing tomorrow night. I’ve preemptively cleared my schedule in anticipation.

For the uninitiated; here’s a good explainer of the drama. As someone who has a long-term dream of writing a fiction book, I have to say… the truth is stranger than fiction. I can hardly think of anything besides this scandal and, instead, have been rewatching old seasons, scrolling reddit threads and texting my fellow Summer House friends. I wish there was one giant zoom we could all join to debrief together!

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