The Fashion Editor’s Guide To Wearing Linen This Spring

Every versatile wardrobe starts with a good foundation. That is, a rotation of hard-working, reliable staples that form the basis of good outfits: white T-shirts, perfectly fitted jeans, a couple of great blazers. And like having a reliable roundup of key pieces, a wardrobe also needs versatile materials that can shape-shift from casual to formal, from cool mornings to high-summer heat with ease. Enter linen: every fashion editor’s secret weapon for clever dressing in spring — and every season in between. And when it comes to styling linen for everyday, Uniqlo does it best.

Having long been a fixture of Uniqlo’s year-round offering, linen sets and separates offer the kind of dressing up (and down) potential fashion editors look for. Keira Sylvester, ELLE‘s social media editor, recently put Uniqlo’s linen collection to the test, wearing it from morning to night while running from the ELLE office in the city to set for a fashion shoot and then to an event after work. There’s no rest in magazine land, but at least if you’re dressed in pieces from Uniqlo’s linen collection, you’ll be able to tackle whatever the day throws at you — and look good doing it.

“I face a busy day as a social media editor, so what to wear has to come easy,” Sylvester says. She starts the day in an unfussy linen skort paired with a white shirt — a fail-safe combination for grabbing coffee and planning the day ahead. After that, Sylvester heads to set for a shoot, trading her casual morning ensemble for something a little more pulled together: roomy trousers, an oversized shirt and a tie, taking her cues from menswear.

Because no day working at a fashion magazine is complete without an after-work event, Sylvester swaps the menswear-inspired midday look for a ’90s-leaning, Carrie Bradshaw-esque column skirt and singlet top — linen, obviously — in black, because you can never go wrong with a black outfit. A pair of nude pumps gives the look an air of sophistication. “Walking into the event, I’m confident because of my look,” she says. It’s the perfect blend of minimalism and elegance, while the linen fabrication makes it feel a little more wearable and casual — the epitome of Australian dressing.

Below, see how ELLE‘s social media editor styles Uniqlo’s linen pieces for spring.