Models are models for a reason: They’re built a certain way, and it’s their job to showcase (and, often, sell) designer clothing by simply looking the way they do. But! Thanks to their willowy physiques and gazelle-like stature, these women also look impeccable—sometimes annoyingly so—in even the most basic clothing, doing the most basic things. This, friends, is why model street style is so damn fascinating.
If you keep up with the phenomenon of style on the street, you’ll know most model-off-duty looks tend to be highly casual—thin white tees, leather moto jackets, skinny jeans, killer boots, denim cutoffs, just-messy-enough hair—but there’s something about the effortless way they appear each and every time they’re photographed in these basics that really do prove models are a species all their own—and they really probably did wake up like this.
To that end, we’ve put together a guide to model’s summer style that illustrates that less really can be more. And while, yeah, we all aren’t six feet tall with legs that stretch from here to the top of the Empire State Building, there’s something extremely inspiring about looking at these lovely creatures and how amazing they look in even the most simple clothes (we know, life’s unfair). Click through the gallery to get inspired, then shop key pieces to get the look yourself.
