Don't Let Your Striped Tee Define You!

My effort to preserve an essential basic.

Your t-shirt stack of “basics” probably includes black, white, grey and stripes at this point, no? Maybe navy or red thrown in there too? What is it that makes stripes on par with your perfect white tee or stack of jeans? The pattern is so ubiquitous it almost doesn’t even register as a print.

But I recently went to a friend’s apartment for a playdate with her son and all four of us (me, her and both of our kids) were in navy and white striped T-shirts. There is nothing wrong with this of course, but it was noticeable. In a way that if we all happened to be in plain white T-shirts or navy sweaters it wouldn’t have been. It is still a pattern, at the end of the day.

When a pattern becomes so prevalent that I can count them walking down the street, I get a little pang in my soul. But a striped tee is not the same as a bohemian floral dress or a polka dot blouse. Things that are easily stored away until the trend dust settles. This is a STAPLE we are talking about. Heck, I just bought two new striped tees after experiencing this realization including the one worn throughout this letter!

What was once just a small sprinkling of flair has become a crutch to allow me to throw on jean jeans and sneakers without a second thought. But like all prints, exposure eventually numbs us to their specialness and we need to adjust. So the challenge for me (us) this week, is how to embrace our stripes and make them feel interesting again. Not to store them away - at this point they are an essential part of our wardrobe - but to think of them anew.

It’s one idea really, in five different outfits. And then I will leave you with my five favorite striped tees because, what is 5 Things without sparing you the doom scroll?

The message is just this: Try to use your stripes as the LEAST exciting part of your outfit. I find we use them as the semi-more-exciting-than-a-white-tee option with jeans or knock around shorts. But try flipping the script and see what happens. Here’s what I mean, in five examples.

Pair Your Stripes With A More Exciting Print

At this point I’ve probably turned you all into skirt people. :) Nothing like a fantastic skirt and a t-shirt or tank in the summertime. Or sweater and tights in the winter, honestly. This idea in particular (of print mixing your stripes), is easiest to execute with a skirt given that the item is a blank canvas that can be shaped, formed or patterned to your hearts desire. This just happens to be my most recent acquisition in the category and it makes me so happy every time I walk down the street in it. I swear, it makes me glide. But my point is, this flouncy skirt with smiling flowers is a lot more attention grabbing than the tee. And therefore settles the tee back into it’s rightful place as an outfit extra.

Nili Lotan t-shirt (worn throughout) with a Marni skirt and K.Jacques sandals

Pair Your Stripes With…Stripes

A striped cotton lounge pant with itty bitty stripes like these carry equal weight as the tee. Extremely cute for a rushed get-the-kids-out-the-door weekday, or a slow and leisurely weekend.

Nili Lotan t-shirt with Donni pants, Jamie Haller ballerinas and my trusted laptop sized Flamenco

Or With Your Fancy Pants

And then there is the whole dressy/casual thing. Lately it seems like a lot of the mix feels too try hard. A million prints. Beads hanging off every possible strap or hook or surface. Maybe it’s that we’ve reached the point in summer where I’m done with everything I’ve sweated through that all the “more” just feels like…more. I am not yet ready for clothes to touch me again…though I deeply feel September coming (yay!). So here is my attempt to create that dressed up mix without going “styling” overboard. An end of summer simple, dressy outfit, without too much too talk about. Try your stripes with a tuxedo pant and neon sandals. Or silky slacks and a big buckles like the image below. I feel super dressed, but still easy.

Nili Lotan t-shirt with an old Tod’s blazer (here’s an alt), The Row pants (again, here is a silky alt) and Jamie Haller sandals

The same outfit looks super fun with my Nike windbreaker we discussed last weekend. A real dressy/cash mix if I’ve ever seen!

Layer Your Stripes Over A Slip

The cutest, comfiest, flirtiest way to wear your striped tee on a date. I actually think I’ll wear this to dinner with my husband next weekend…seems like the perfect last-weekend-of-summer-and-the-city-is-empty outfit. No? It’s our anniversary and we are going to Barbuto. Yum! He does not read the newsletter, so it will be a surprise. LOL. But really, the point here is that you can play with your clothes in all kinds of ways. I love the sheer layer sticking out of the tee like a skirt. And the way the shirt hem hangs down around my hips, nothing pulling. A very easy, summery way to show skin without showing skin or worrying about your waistband after a primi and a secondi.

Nili Lotan tee over a MNZ x J.Crew slip (don’t forget your Spanx) and Jimmy Choo slingbacks, both of which we discussed last weekend and I have been wearing with glee.

With Jeans…The HARDEST COMBO!

This is the hardest category to attempt and also to describe. Because technically, what we are trying to avoid is the jeans+stripe tee combo that doesn’t feel exciting, but just wearing clothes for wearing clothes sake. Now, that’s not to say we don’t like this combo. Some days it takes all our energy just to get the clothes on and get going. But for the purposes of this exercise, we are looking for the intentional answer here. What jeans make you feel like you are participating in fashion, or give off a sense of style beyond just wearing jeans. With our striped tees, the idea is to pick a jean that gives you the feeling of being truly dressed. For me, it’s these Auralee jeans that are cinched at my waist but loose in the hips and legs and hit right at my heel. They are a little bit 70s. A little bit baggy and the wash I want to be wearing in August. When I tuck the striped t-shirt in, I feel a vibe shift and I’m all of a sudden in an OUTFIT.

Nili Lotan t-shirt, Auralee jeans (size 1, their sizing is weird), Worishofers and old Celine sunnies. These Phoebe Philo ones tho are maj.

Five Striped Tees

And swimming away from our sea of sameness, five great striped tees that you hopefully haven’t seen before (in addition to the one I just wore throughout of course.)

Clockwise from top left: Imogene & Willie, Heimat, Auralee (size 3), H&M which unfortunately at time of publication is almost sold out, so check out this crazy shaped Zara one, very cool, Round Two.

Oh and if you really are just trying to throw on jeans or gym shorts, forego your stripes and wear THIS grey t-shirt. Really. It’s perfect.

Yours TRULY,

Becky