When it’s hot—and it certainly is climate-emergency-hot this summer—we tend to veer towards less fabric, more skin. We debate how many bare butt cheeks have graced the subway seats before us. T-shirts are in utero-sized. Our shoes are thonged or soleless, semi-barefoot.
This season, though, has seen t-shirts lengthen and sleeves elongate—it’s bye-bye baby tee, hello schlubby shirt summer.
Take Zendaya, for example, who experimented with method dressing and managed to beat the heatwave concurrently in a vintage, XXL Spider-Man t-shirt on the red carpet. Paired with those trusty white Louboutin pumps, it felt cheeky, easy, and breezy. Alexa Demie wore an oversized “I <3 Rosalia” merch t-shirt to the pop star’s Los Angeles show, paired with black track pants and vintage adidas boxing boots to add to the sporty, relaxed aesthetic. (Celebrities stanning each other is a new style frontier.)
Jennifer Lawrence, an acolyte of New York cool-girl ease, paired her graphic tee with similarly trending Bermuda shorts to run errands in the city. Alexa Chung has been capturing her daily fits on her doorbell cam: many see her in the same outfit formula, with an oversized top over a silky midi skirt. A big-tee-little-skirt combo also feels very Zoe Kravitz in Saint Laurent street-style-coded. The womenswear runways have also incorporated looser, less body-skimming forms: at Pierpaolo Piccioli’s spring 2026 Balenciaga debut, for one, sinewy big shirts were elevated with flowing skirts. Big attitude, bold silhouette, bigger tees have long been a staple at Entire Studios, Vaquera, Willy Chavarria, and Luar. There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all way to wear one.
