The Fashion Set Has Spoken: This Patterned Set Is the Official It-Girl Outfit of Summer 2025

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Models wearing gingham summer sets.
(Image credit: Courtesy of brands)

I know it's the beginning of summer when I make an impulse purchase. There's just something about sipping on a spritz outside and talking about my future vacation plans that makes me want to add something to my cart immediately. Like clockwork, I knew it was finally summer when I felt the itch to buy something seconds after I saw it, and that something was Sandy Liang's Kayo Shorts and Simona Top in Green Gingham.

Model wearing a Sandy Liang gingham set.

(Image credit: Courtesy of Sandy Liang)

The set is a picnic you can wear. I can feel the breeze of a Cape Cod beach night and smell a fresh lobster roll just by looking at it. It feels like all the dreamiest parts of summer puffed up into little bubble shorts and buttoned up into a poplin top. I knew I had to have it because I couldn't help but picture how great it would feel to be eating a dozen oysters by the water somewhere while wearing it.

Tara Gonzalez wearing a Sandy Liang gingham set while taking a mirror selfie.

When I received the top and shorts in the mail, I instantly tried them on and fell in love. I styled them with my favorite pair of summer shoes, Tory Burch's Capri Low Heel Sandals.

(Image credit: @tarigonzalez)

Tara Gonzalez wearing a Sandy Liang gingham set while taking a mirror selfie.

To me, this set is the definition of summer.

(Image credit: @tarigonzalez)

I've started to see these sets everywhere, and I'm also seeing It girls buy them, which makes me feel better about the swiftness with which I bought mine. I also fully understand why. There's a simple nostalgia to the look. It doesn't just look great for summer—it truly encapsulates all that's great about summer.

It's as effortless and low effort as a beach picnic, which just requires some food and a blanket to throw down. Similarly, all you need to look good in this set is to just wear it. You don't even have to accessorize. While I love to wear mine with strappy Tory Burch sandals, it would also look great barefoot while you run through the sand.

Shop the patterned set below.

This post was published at an earlier date and has since been updated.

Tara Gonzalez
Tara Gonzalez
Senior Fashion Social Editor

Tara Gonzalez is a senior fashion and social editor at WhoWhatWear. where she is interested in exploring the intersection of fashion and culture and why we are drawn to wearing the things we wear and what that says about the world we live in. Previously she worked as a senior fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar. When she isn't writing trend deep dives for WWW, she's working on her newsletter on Substack, Cult Classic, which explores the very best fashion in film and television. She has a degree in creative writing from The University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Brooklyn with her boyfriend and pug Bjork, the later of which has a very extensive collection of dog-sized Sandy Liang sweaters.