Are You A “Coastal Grandmother” Wanna Be?

There’s a new style trending on social media called, “coastal grandmother” a term that was coined by Tik Tok influencer Lex Nicoleta and refers to a relaxed, elevated way of living–the lifestyle exemplified by Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give and Meryl Streep in It’s Complicated.  

Lex, herself, is just 26 years old, so the style she promotes is not bound by age, or geographical locale although she defines a West Coast grandmother as a woman who loves Pilates, martinis, and cashmere sweaters. And says that an East Coast grandmother prefers pottery class, cappuccinos with skim milk, and white button-down shirts. Still, the underlying concept is about romanticizing your own life and you can really see the appeal against the backdrop of our current economic, political, and post-pandemic times.

When it comes to creating a coastal grandmother wardrobe, Nicoleta suggests that trend followers invest in a few staple items, including a white button-down shirt, a bucket hat, a white dress with a delicate silhouette, linen pants or shorts, a cozy sweatshirt, vintage sunglasses and a neutral-toned sandal.

This is a look that may really appeal to you, but like all style trends there is no “one size fits all” and I get very leery of prescriptive wardrobe “must have lists”. So…before you hop online to stock up on baggy linen pants, white turtlenecks and button down shirts and enter the world of the Hollywood movie set, just take a brief pause and think about how this style will be best expressed on you.

As with any style trend, you’ll want to make sure that these wardrobe recommendations work not just in your imagination but also work for your body signature, your seasonal-line-of -becomingness, harmonize with your inherent coloring, express your personality AND support your actual lifestyle, not some fantasy lifestyle.

Because if you are, in fact, a grandmother you may find that white is not the ideal color to wear when your toddler grandchild is sitting on your lap with her chocolate ice-cream cone. And you may find it challenging to wear that cozy sweatshirt and bucket hat to your urban grocery store without feeling frumpy or you may also find that white dress with the delicate silhouette doesn’t really enhance your post-menopausal body.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t grab the romantic appeal of this style trend for yourself and find a way to express it that is authentic to you even if it is just for a beach holiday capsule wardrobe that you get to wear once a year.

Living on the West coast the rolled-up linen pants and cotton buttondown shirt work for my locale as well as for my sporty style but the shapeless shirt is not the ideal for my body signature so I close a few buttons to bring more attention to my waist and wear my skintone over white because it harmonizes better with me.

I’ve worn the outfit in the above photo for awhile (a.k.a Martha Stewart’s style) for hanging out at home or in the garden because it was functional and comfortable, but the addition of the bucket hat (something I’d never really tried before) in this hair-related color, helped to elevate this look on me to something “cute” and suddenly it felt perfect for walking the beach this week. As much as I align with the look and feel of the coastal grandmother, it won’t be the trend that will define me, but it is fun to draw some inspiration from the ways it is being expressed by others.

So what about you? Are you drawn to any aspects of the coastal grandmother style and what is your personal expression of it?

Style trends come and go but they generally fit under larger more general universal style categories. In my online course, Exploring Your Seasonal Style , you’ll learn how to identify the style type(s) that work best for your body signature, your seasonal color & style, and your lifestyle. This will help you to better understand what current trends will work for you and what trends you need to just admire on others instead. The videos for this course are self-paced and come with lifetime access so you can binge watch on a rainy afternoon or spread them out for months to come.

And there’s no “must have” white button down shirt required (promise!)