A great beach look has the rare talent of making practicality look like taste. The best à la plage outfits begin with pieces that move from the sand to lunch without losing composure. A draped pareo gives a one-piece swimsuit a more fluid line, while an oversized shirt brings that easy elegance usually reserved for people who seem to have packed in ten minutes and still look impeccably edited, which is either a gift or a very advanced form of vacation strategy.
The Pareo Is Back as the Chicest Beach Uniform
The pareo has always belonged to the mythology of beach glamour, although fashion periodically pretends to have discovered it for the first time. Its latest revival found a very persuasive ambassador in Jacquemus, who turned the wrapped skirt into a super-chic summer statement with the custom-made look created for Charlotte Le Bon for the third season of The White Lotus (by the way, you can still buy it!). The fact that a similar version now belongs to the brand’s shopping universe only confirms the obvious. The pareo has left the emergency-cover-up category and entered the realm of objects that can build an entire look around a swimsuit. That Jacquemus moment feels like the cherry on top of a much longer history. Elizabeth Taylor wore scarves around the waist with the authority of someone who understood beach dressing as a form of cinema. Brigitte Bardot helped turn Riviera swimwear into a cultural language rather than a holiday detail. Sophia Loren made the one-piece swimsuit look monumental, proving that a simple silhouette could carry more drama than most evening gowns. Today, the formula works because it borrows from that lineage without looking archival. A low-slung pareo over a clean one-piece swimsuit gives the body a softer line and makes the whole outfit feel ready for a seaside lunch that may have started as “just a quick swim.”
The Oversized Shirt as an Ironic Couture Twist on Office Dressing
The other great à la plage move is the oversized shirt, which works precisely because it looks like an elegant distortion of office dressing. The shape belongs to the workday, but the intention has completely changed. Instead of trousers, there is a swimsuit. Instead of a desk, there is the sea. The result feels chic because it keeps the authority of a crisp shirt and redirects it toward summer, as if the most serious piece in the wardrobe had quietly decided to abandon all meetings and book a beach chair. Worn alone, the oversized shirt becomes a refined cover-up with the attitude of a mini dress. Left open over a one-piece or buttoned just enough over a bikini, it gives beachwear a sharper line without making it look too studied. With a pareo skirt, the effect becomes even more interesting, because the shirt brings structure while the pareo keeps the look fluid. It is almost a couture joke on the office uniform, only with bare legs, wet hair and the very clear intention of spending the day by the water.
