Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: this sweltering summer, I finally stopped giving a tuck

This was the summer of the Great Untuck. The long hot summer of 2026 finally taught me to do what fashion has been nagging me about for years, which is to quit tucking in my shirts and T-shirts. To stop assuming that the top half of an outfit must be neatly cinched by the waistband of the skirt or trousers.

It wasn’t a style epiphany, to be fair. It was just too hot to do anything else. An extended run of hot weather at home changes how you dress. In the old-school type of British heatwave, which lasted about half a week, I was too giddy with excitement at not having to wear a cardigan to think more strategically. But this summer was different. And eventually I discovered what hot-climate cultures have always known, which is that loose, generously sized clothing that maximises sun protection while minimising skin contact is way more pleasant to wear in the heat than anything short and tight.

And it wasn’t just me. I was at haute couture shows in Paris and Rome back in July, and it was crazy hot. The super-wealthy women who get invited because they actually buy the stuff, were wearing shoulder-padded cocktail suits or sequin-embellished dresses, or whatever they had ordered from the latest collection. Fair play: if I had bought £100,000-worth of embroidery I might also feel compelled to wear it, even at risk of heatstroke. But pretty much everyone else was wearing a loose shirt – could be Carven, could be Uniqlo – over some sort of filmy skirt, or hanging over loose trousers. Sometimes unbuttoned over a bra top, sometimes buttoned through, but never tucked in.

This summer has been a learning curve for me. My instinct is always to tuck a shirt in, or at the very least French tuck the front. I would love to say this is just because it feels smarter but, if I’m honest, it is also because my instinctive response to seeing myself in a mirror is to try to make myself look smaller. Yes, this is idiot-level behaviour, I know that. But the impulse – to hold your tummy in, or to belt your jacket to give it a waist – is so ingrained in many women that I’m not sure we recognise it for what it is a lot of the time.

Anyway, this summer snapped me out of it. Because I realised that tucking my shirt into my trousers was making me hot and flustered, and – this is the really bad part – also making me look old-fashioned and out of touch. The cool kids are letting their clothes hang loose. Tucking your shirt in is becoming a bit like matching your shoes to your handbag: you think it makes you look polished, but in fact it just makes you look a bit passe.

Alexa Chung was way ahead of me here. Obviously. So if you won’t listen to me, take it from Alexa. Speaking on a podcast in February, she told Harper’s Bazaar she had been “trying something on the other day, and tucking it in felt weird. I immediately, instinctively, went for the tuck. And then I thought: ‘Oh no, wait, that feels weird.’”

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Proportions change. These tides come and go, and it is my job to keep an eye on them so that you and I don’t get beached. This hot summer has accelerated a shift to a looser silhouette. Volume has been around in fashion for a while, but mostly the exaggerated shapes – bell sleeves, A-line skirts – have been offset by a narrow torso. This is about a more fluid line.

If you really can’t deal with letting it all hang out, there is a workaround. I saw it on TikTok, so it must be OK, right? I’m calling it the Reverse French. Instead of tucking a shirt or long top into the front of your waistband, you gather some of the fabric at the back – you can use a ponytail band – and hide this inside the back of your waistband. At the front, the fabric hangs out. You still get the looseness, but with less extra fabric.

A record-breaking heatwave has given us a chance to catch up with loosey-goosey fashion, but old habits die hard: I will be keeping a ponytail band in my handbag just in case.

Styling: Melanie Wilkinson. Styling assistant: Charlotte Gornall. Model: Moli at Milk. Hair and makeup: Sophie Higginson using Davines and Reome. , £220, Navygrey. , £35, Stripe & Stare. , £69.99, Mango. Earrings, £65, and necklace, £75, both Anni Lu