This Summer, I Gave Up Trying to Dress Up — and They Say I'm Pretty!

October 15, 2026

This Summer, I Gave Up Trying to Dress Up — and They Say I'm Pretty! 1

'Sweat-prone' people are already exhausted on the commute. So when I see people walking through lobbies looking fresh and dry even in monsoon season and extreme heat, I blame my genes. (Sorry, Mom.) Instead of managing a chic minimal look, the moment the temperature passes 20°C I can't dress properly and end up in a threadbare basic T-shirt and jeans. In the past I relied on a black dress. Especially when I enter the Vogue office and see people who still exude fragrance and click their heels in this weather, my self-loathing grows. My scruffiness feels magnified.

But this year, even though the extreme heat hasn't arrived yet, I'm strangely comforted by people's styles. I've noticed more people giving up on dressing up than last year. Even the most stylish people I know have started pulling out worn, faded clothes they used to only wear as pajamas. Those very people who would insist on sourcing an ordinary white T-shirt from the Helmut Lang archive, or whose crewneck sweater always had to be a The Row piece, are now casually wearing faded garments that had been crumpled in the back of a drawer. Is even the fashion world's longest-lasting trend — the desire to be different, to be recognized as having superior taste — surrendering to summer?

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British Vogue has been talking about a similar dilemma. Mahoro Seward, Fashion & Style Editor, who confessed she had spent 'so many years trying to look cool that she doesn't want to admit it,' coined the neologism 'Embrasic.' A blend of 'embrace' and 'basic,' the term expresses the liberating feeling of letting go of the compulsion to prove a painstakingly cultivated, profound taste. The word itself hasn't spread widely, but its meaning is easy to nod along to. Here, 'basic' refers to the popular and ordinary — an attitude of not being ashamed to like the obvious things everyone else likes.

Lately many people are reconciling with the 'basic' tastes within us. Like how the movie Aladdin drew 12.8 million viewers domestically. Who hasn't hummed the OST 'A Whole New World'? Pretending to be sophisticated every moment is exhausting and, frankly, a little embarrassing. I used to tell junior editors who rejected popular appeal — along with my mentor and Vogue Korea Digital Director Kwon Min-ji — 'You'll be embarrassed someday,' because we were the same. Jonathan Anderson, celebrated as the fashion world's great experimenter, spends most days in a navy crewneck T-shirt, jeans, and Salomon walking shoes. Maybe he's the best-dressed (and good-looking) man in the business.

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Of course there will be days when I wax poetic about the virtues of a shirt bespoke at Charvet in Paris or the soft loafers you can only buy at Rubirosa's in Paris's 7th arrondissement. But right now I don't want to be trapped in the prison of 'refined taste.' So unbutton your blouse and enjoy dressing for the season. Accept clothes that serve the basic purpose of dressing — practical, uncomplicated, and not precious. This isn’t the season to worry about dry-cleaning bills or to fight over looks on Fruits Family every day. It's a season for pieces you can stuff into a tote, fling into a bicycle basket, or throw on without thinking. This season I want simple, basic clothes that you can sweat in, sit anywhere in, and not worry about. Clothes you can just live in. The strange thing is, when you dress like that, people say you look pretty.

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