What People Will Be Wearing This Summer, as Seen on the Aussies Who Are Already Living It
Rama Duwaji's famed insta fit is exactly what Melbourne's pub-goers are rocking right now
You didn’t think I’d spend this long soaking up Australian summer without sharing some anthropological research, did you? As your resident New Yorker in Sydney, this is Blundstones-on-the-ground reporting about what’s trending down under and insight as to what you might see everyone wearing summer ‘26 — because some people are already living it!
Aussie summer is in full-swing in January. Kids are off from school, the corporate crowd takes New Year’s leave for a beach holiday, and bush campsites are bustling with rowdy families and sandy dogs and giant lizards that try to steal sausages off the barbecue. It’s their July, to put it into northern hemisphere terms, and they don’t call it “silly season” for nothing. So people are dressing accordingly.
How does the trend cycle work then, when the majority of global fashion powers live in the opposite seasonal pattern? I hit up Kayla Marci to help explain, who’s not only a brilliant Substacker but a Melbourne-native who has years of professional trend forecasting under her belt.
Historically, Australia has trailed behind in the official trend cycle — about six months, according to Kayla — as styles that have picked up in the northern hemisphere trickle down south. But thanks to a boom in the Australian fashion scene, that’s becoming less and less true every season.
“There are so many cool emerging designers carving out an Australian fashion identity that exists beyond seasonal hand-me-downs,” Kayla said.
There are dual forces at play in the heat of the Australian summer. Influences from the previous summer in the northern hemisphere work alongside more organic trends created in Australia’s emerging global fashion hub. It’s a physically isolated part of the world, but in the internet age, this hand-me-down cycle has sped up and rearranged. Today we have the ability to pull influence from each other more easily than ever before.
In Sydney, where I’ve spent most of my time, the uniform is most informed by one’s proximity to water. There’s a SoCal feel to how people dress, directly influenced by and in conversation with American surf culture. Melbourne’s dress code is closer to NYC than LA. In the northern suburbs where Kayla lives (i.e. the coolest spot to be), she describes the look as naughties-forward and “undone and unpolished” as opposed to the slick-back buns of the yuppier crowd closer to city-center.
So as Australia fosters its own more self-sustaining fashion scene less dependent on that in the north, what are people wearing? These are my field notes on styles and pieces that will have major staying power through summer — the second summer of 2026, that is.
There was a noticeable absence of the Jort.
2025 was the year of the Jort. Every baddie in Bushwick lived, laughed, loved their way through last summer in Jorts. I’ve hardly seen any femme-presenting people wearing Jorts in the past few weeks in Australia — but I have seen hundreds of pairs of long baggy shorts made with other fabrics.
The 2026 short is a Rama Duwaji short, as pictured here with leather boots and a one-shoulder top. This entire look, actually, is doing numbers in Melbourne pubs. Swap the boots for platform flip-flops and you’ve got the Sydney version.
This summer, shorts are staying long and loose while leaning further into baggy cotton, structured wool, tie-waist styles, and more tailored trouser silhouettes. I included quite a few of these in last summer’s round-up of non-denim shorts, but here are a few more to keep an eye on.
Swim is about to get very UPF-forward.
I called it a Roxy Girl Summer last year because of my obsession with early 2000s surf style, but I think I was a tad too early on that one. This summer it feels like we’re going to see a big spike in one-pieces, full-coverage suits, rash guards, and UPF wear. People are more conscious about sun protection and UV damage than ever, and the next step after sunscreen-obsession is evolving to more physical barriers in clothing and accessories.
The sun is incredibly strong in Australia (it’s literally 5 million kilometers closer to Australia during the summer than it is to the U.S.), and people do not mess around with the dangers of over-exposure. In school there’s a handy catchphrase — “No hat, no play” — to remind children they’re required to wear a physical barrier during recess. I see more people in protective long-sleeves (me included) at beaches in Sydney than I ever have elsewhere, and it’s about time the northern hemisphere catches up on sun protection.
There are two other major contributing factors I see pointing to this on the horizon: 1. global temps continue to rise and climate-protective gear is becoming more and more necessary; 2. in the beauty industry’s never-ending quest to have us be so wrinkle-free we look like we haven’t even lived a life, UPF clothing will be considered an anti-aging beauty product.
Even as I was putting this letter together, Balenciaga dropped a Pre-Fall 2026 lookbook featuring a number of wetsuit-adjacent athletic pieces.
If you weren’t already on board with Bermudas… might you consider going plaid?
Curveball! When I think of plaid Bermuda shorts, I picture a 2007-era Lilly Truscott skating her longboard into Hannah Montana’s living room with three tanks layered and a seasonally inappropriate beanie atop her little blonde head.