Reading · Scandi Delights

If you’ve been reading my Substack for a while, you’ve probably noticed I have a habit.

Whenever I share a blazer, a handbag, a knit or even a pair of shoes, I almost always end up adding the same thing:

I did it in my navy piece. I did it again in the blue shirt piece. I catch myself saying it in the Substack chat and thinking it every time I browse online.

At this point, it’s become almost subconscious – to the point where I’ve caught myself deleting the phrase while editing because I’ve written it yet again.

Part of it is absolutely practical. It’s the outfit I wear most often with a tweak here and there. But it’s also something else.

I can try on fifteen different outfits, only to end up back in jeans and a white t-shirt. It’s honestly when I feel most like myself.

More than once, I've planned outfits for date nights, work headshots or evenings out, only to change into jeans and a white T-shirt at the last minute. Clearly, there's something about that combination I just can't shake.

The jeans-and-white-tee formula has also become my shopping filter, a kind of litmus test. Maybe yours is a black dress, or a white shirt with black trousers. Whenever I’m considering buying something new, I instinctively picture it with vintage denim and a simple white T-shirt.

Not because that’s the only way I dress, but because it’s how I dress most often. If a blazer only works with the matching trousers, or a handbag only comes alive alongside an evening dress, then it’s probably not for me.

I want pieces that don’t need a cast of supporting characters. Pieces that help me elevate clothes I already have, or pieces that make the boring just a bit more exciting.

If something makes my old Levi’s and a white t-shirt feel special, I know I’ll probably wear it for years.

When I was younger, I often bought clothes for the life I imagined I might have. Fashion Week (for the record, I worked in fashion PR – but I was absolutely not sitting front row). Fabulous dinner parties. Beautiful holidays.

In other words, the version of myself who always had somewhere glamorous to be.

Turns out, grown-up Antonia has far more ordinary days than glamorous ones. I bike my daughter to preschool. I spend hours in meetings. I do weekend Costco runs (yes, we have Costco in Stockholm). I sit on the floor building Magna-Tiles and marble runs. I have lunch with a friend. I spend Saturday mornings at the hockey rink with my son. That’s where my wardrobe actually lives.

I think that’s really what this whole piece is about and what my Substack always comes back to. Not jeans and a white t-shirt, exactly, but dressing for the life I actually have instead of the one I used to picture.

It may explain why I so often recommend investment pieces or classics. Not because I think anyone needs an expensive wardrobe – I truly don’t. I believe more in quality over quantity.

And I do think one really lovely piece can make ten simple outfits feel new again. That’s the kind of shopping I get excited about – the feeling that my jeans can stay, and all I’ve added is the cherry on top.

It feels like jeans and a white tee have survived almost everything fashion has thrown at them. Growing up in the ’90s and early 2000s, so many of my style references were built around that simple combination.

Jeans were never designed to be fashionable. Nerd alert: Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patented riveted denim trousers in 1873 for miners, railroad workers and laborers during the California Gold Rush. They were simply hard-wearing work clothes.

The white tee wasn’t much more glamorous. It began as underwear – something worn beneath uniforms and work shirts. It wasn’t really intended to be seen at all.

Somewhere along the way, though, the two found each other.

Hollywood helped. Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. That type of combo, supported by big Hollywood stars, made the simple look effortless, rebellious and impossibly cool.

Women borrowed it and made it entirely their own. Jane Birkin wore denim, simple white tees, red heels and her basket bag as though she’d thrown them on without a second thought. Kate Moss and the rest of the supermodels made them look like the easiest outfit in the world. Carolyn Murphy still does.

What’s interesting is that none of those girls were really wearing the same outfit.

The jeans changed. High rise became low rise. Straight gave way to flares, then skinny jeans, then wide legs, and on and on. The t-shirt has morphed too – from classic crewnecks to oversized men’s tees to fitted baby tees and back again.

Every decade has insisted it found the "correct" jeans – the perfect tee.

I think that’s because jeans and a white t-shirt never really belong to the fashion universe. They belong to the person wearing them, and how they wear them.

Maybe that’s why it’s a never-fail in my wardrobe.

(The below includes affiliate links, more on that at the bottom.)

The beauty of jeans and a white T-shirt is that they don't need much. They work perfectly well on their own, but they also leave room for the pieces that make an outfit feel personal. A favorite bag, an old watch, a knit in a fun color or a pair of shoes you wear until your cobbler comes to the rescue. None of them change the outfit, but together they’re often what turns a classic into something that is unmistakeably yours.

Take Danielle Goldberg, the stylist responsible for some of the most memorable celebrity wardrobes (day and night) in recent years. She's proof that personality doesn't always come from wearing more — it comes from wearing familiar pieces in a way that feels authentic to you. She is often seen in trousers and a tee. Here, a white tee, lived-in denim (at the perfect length for thicker-soled sneakers,) a baseball cap and sunglasses tucked into the neckline. Nothing about it is groundbreaking, yet it feels completely her.

I’ve always thought the easiest way to judge a bag is to picture it with jeans and a white t-shirt. Not tailoring. Not an evening dress. Just denim.

Whether it’s a woven bag you picked up at a market on holiday, a vintage find from Vinted, or the dream bag you saved up for, they all seem to make sense against that backdrop. The simpler the outfit, the bag ends up standing out, or fitting right in. Like it was just meant for that look.

Shoes are where I have the most fun introducing a little contrast to something as simple as jeans + a tee.

Sharp ballet flats with faded denim. A tiny kitten heel with loose, wide-leg jeans. Even red flip-flops with tailored dark denim and a white tee for a workday.

The simpler the clothes, the more room there is for the shoes to do the talking. And a really good pair of jeans has a way of grounding almost anything. Suddenly, a shoe that felt a little too polished, too colorful or too precious feels completely wearable. This is when we pull out our wedding shoes, right Sogole Kane?

Perhaps this is where jeans and a t-shirt become most personal, and where you can jazz it up with things that are truly you.

A vintage watch or scarf. Gold hoops. An awesome belt. Funky sunnies. A chunky silver necklace.

When everything else is kept simple, those pieces become the focus. I love the idea of more is more, but there are days when a white tee, great jeans and a few pieces of jewelry are all I want to wear.

I’ve often found that jewelry which can feel a little too dressed up with a dress suddenly makes perfect sense with denim and a white tee. Somehow, the contrast makes both feel more interesting.

By now, you already know I have a weakness for knitwear. Nothing makes me feel more at home than a knit with jeans and flats or boots. It’s also what I wear from fall to spring.

A crewneck thrown over the shoulders or tied around the waist. A v-neck with the white tee peeking out underneath. I do not, I repeat, do not, think this will ever get old. At least for me.

A beautiful knit doesn’t always need perfectly pressed trousers. Sometimes it looks even better with worn-in jeans and boots. That’s when it starts to feel lived in rather than overly styled. Like you’re wearing the clothes, not the other way around.

I don’t think I’ve ever bought a blazer without imagining it with jeans first.

Strip away the matching trousers, the silk blouse and the polished styling, and what’s left? Hopefully a really good suit jacket to wear over a white tee and denim.

The same goes for outerwear. A ladylike jacket. A suede or leather jacket. A trench or car coat.

If I can imagine throwing it over jeans and a tee from fall till it gets chilly, it deserves a place in my wardrobe. If it only works as part of “an outfit”, or for that fancy night out, it usually ends up just hanging there.

The older I get, the more I appreciate clothes that don’t need much else.

Growing up, it felt like every few years someone declared a different version of the t-shirt/jeans to be the only one worth wearing.

Now baby tees are back, low rise denim is having another moment, and somewhere along the way barrel jeans entered the chat and don’t seem to want to leave.

I genuinely enjoy watching it all. Fashion will always evolve like that.

But I’ve also realised that the “right” version is simply the one you feel most comfortable in.

If a baby tee makes you feel fantastic, wear the baby tee. If you’ve found your perfect heavyweight oversized crewneck, wear that. If you still reach for wide-leg jeans every morning while everyone else is talking about vintage 501s, that’s probably telling you something. Go for it.

I’ve reached the point where I no longer feel any urge to convince myself into silhouettes that don’t quite feel like me simply because they’re having a moment.

Because the minute I start worrying more about whether I’m wearing the “right” jeans than whether I feel good in them, I find myself fidgeting with my clothes all day.

And that’s usually a sign I’ve chosen the wrong outfit.

Maybe that’s what I’ve really meant every time I’ve written, Imagine it with a t-shirt and jeans.

Not because I think everyone should wear jeans and a white tee.

But because I hope you’ve found — or will find — your own version of that feeling. The outfit that makes you stop thinking about what you’re wearing and get on with your day. For me, it just happens to be jeans and a white t-shirt.

If you’re as fascinated by jeans and white t-shirts as I apparently am, these are a few pieces I’ve enjoyed recently.

Jane Herman is the ultimate one to follow re denim on Substack. She has the knowledge and all the tips!

OFELIA did an amazing piece on white tees – and some investigative research on fits and styles from different brands. It’s definitely worth checking out!

For everyday jeans+tee inspiration, I love fellow Substackers Sylvie Mus, Gabriella Gofis and Natalia Quintero Ochoa and how they make a white tee and denim feel effortless. Often with the perfect vintage jacket.

So guys, I'll be here, still writing "imagine it with a t-shirt and jeans" in the Substack chat, probably for the rest of my life. And now you know why. Some habits are worth keeping.

Wishing you all a lovely Sunday! And as always, I leave you with some words.