Summer jeans only work if you stop treating denim as a cold weather fabric and start buying for heat, which means lighter weights, paler washes, and cuts that don't cling the second you sit down on a hot bus seat. I spent a few summers sweating through the same heavyweight indigo pair because I'd convinced myself jeans were jeans, and they're not, not in June.
Fit is where most summer denim goes wrong, so try things on sitting as well as standing, because a waistband that's fine upright can dig in the moment you bend. Wide leg and straight cuts breathe better than anything skinny, and a slightly higher rise stops gaping at the back when you reach up. Go for washes with some stretch but not too much, since the cheap stretch denim loses its shape by lunchtime and bags at the knee. On colour, a soft mid blue or a bleached out pale wash is the easiest thing to live with, it goes with everything and doesn't show every crease the way black denim does in direct sun. White jeans are gorgeous for about four hours and then you remember you sat on grass, so if you're buying white, line the pockets with a hand first and check they're not see through against a window, that's a two second check that saves an embarrassing afternoon. Before you buy any pair, run your hand down the inside seam for rough stitching, check the button sits flat rather than digging in, and pull the fabric across your knee to see how much it gives.
A relaxed pair of jeans carries a whole summer wardrobe on its back. They sit happily under a linen shirt left open over a vest, under a simple cotton top tucked in, or under a loose knitted vest when the evenings cool off. Flat sandals keep the whole thing looking easy rather than dressed up, and a canvas tote does more for the look than a structured bag ever will. Keep jewellery minimal, one decent necklace rather than three, because pale denim already does enough of the talking.
Tomorrow morning I'd put on a pale straight leg pair with a white cotton shirt knotted at the front, flat sandals, and nothing else to think about before I've had coffee.
