I’m embracing the ‘Coastal Grandma’ look

I’M CURLED up in a rattan chair on a sundeck, chick-lit novel in one hand and a glass of chablis in the other, contemplating a plate of heirloom tomatoes and homemade pesto as my white linen shirt wafts in the cool sea breeze… This, friends, is a snapshot of my incoming Coastal Grandma summer. Allow me to explain.

“Coastal Grandma” is a phrase that refers to the laid-back, monied seafront lifestyle of the beautiful older women seen in Nancy Meyers films like Something’s Gotta Give. It was coined by 26-year-old Californian TikToker Lex Nicoleta in March and has since exploded into a trend that informs everything from wardrobe choices to menus and interiors.

It has nothing to do with your actual gran and everything to do with the cinema trope of glowy-skinned, turtleneck-wearing septuagenarians wafting around their sun-drenched seafront properties. The poster girls? Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, inset.

The CG dresses in oversized white shirts, loose khaki linen trousers and straw bucket hats with simple strappy sandals. She makes iced tea and owns a seemingly endless wardrobe of neutral-toned cashmere knits.

The best part about the aesthetic? Advancing age and proximity to a beach are not requisite for adoption.

CG celebrates a pared-back anti-trend aesthetic. At its core, the movement is about comfort, cosiness and slowing down. Given the current car crash that is global politics and finance, is it really so surprising that Gen Zers would rather light an expensive candle and escape the world by preserving some lemons while swigging expensive chardonnay? Beach or no beach, I’m right with them.