Close your eyes and picture the following: slightly greasy hair, a faded band tee, oversized white jeans, beat-to-shit sneakers. Who comes to mind? A young Keanu Reeves underdressed for a ‘90s-era Warner premiere? Kurt Cobain kitted out in thrift-store rags? Or maybe just the coolest guy in the local skate crew?
None of these guesses are technically wrong, but the answer I’m looking for is Kristen Stewart. While it’s easy to associate her with her earliest works — in particular the now-camp classic Twilight — the actress has cemented herself as one of Hollywood’s coolest customers over the past decade, powered by (among other things) a slate of cult indie flicks, a decade-long Chanel partnership and a permanent spot among the #cigflunecer Mount Rushmore.
In tandem with this vibe evolution, Stewart has quietly developed a reputation as a vintage T-shirt savant an elite dresser. On the red carpet, certainly, but more so regarding her everyday style, a proto-punk, workwear-leaning aesthetic, mostly involving stained chore coats, obscure band tees and vintage Carhartts, that’s increasingly being compared to that of a pre-internet heartthrob.
Stewart’s latest look is a lock for her best ‘90s homage yet. Doing press in Manhattan for the forthcoming stoner comedy The Wrong Girls, Stewart was scoped wearing a menswear-coded combo yanked straight out of an early Jake Phelps edition of Thrasher: a boxy, vintage Pixies tee — a merch deep cut from the band’s 1997 compilation album — paired with wide-leg, rolled white denim and black suede Adidas sneakers.
The outfit has something for everyone: proportion-primed short kings, eBay crawlers, patina obsessives, even grooming gurus (Stewart’s wolf shag remains the hottest haircut on the market). An extremely simple, highly replicable ensemble, albeit executed at the highest levels of casual swag, it’s also an excellent reminder that we could all stand to chill out a bit with our ‘fits. And that you should definitely start hunting for more vintage tees.
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