A Gen-X Survival Guide for Holidaying with Gen Z

The Evolution of Beach Holiday Fashion

When it comes to life admin, "packing" is unlikely to feature in anyone’s top five. But packing for a beach holiday is surely one of life’s jollier tasks. Suddenly, items that wouldn’t see the light of day in your home town seem invested with promise, no matter how jaunty the print or improbable the colour. Canary yellow? Why not! You have 51 weeks of the year to be dreary (50, for anyone still wealthy enough to take a two-week holiday) – tonight, Cilla, you’re going to be Greek Island You, which is like Regular Berkshire You, only with added tassels.

Are you sure about the tassels, though? That basket bag is looking a bit dated – it’s all about raffia now. And don’t bother packing your salt spray. Beachy waves are so daytime TV – far cooler to slick your hair back in a ponytail or wear it in a single braid.

If you have a teenager in your life, you may already be familiar with Gen Z’s summer chic list, and will already know that their holiday wardrobe is rather different from your own. Read on for their cardinal summer style rules, and decide for yourself which of their edicts are worth noting – and which of yours have (somewhat improbably) endured.

Don't Pack Your Sandals

Your heels are pumiced, your nails are clipped and your toes are painted in a modish coral. Three variants of sandal are ready to be packed: your Ancient Greeks, your Havaianas and your Birkenstock Arizonas. Soon, you’ll feel the sand between your toes, a tactile pleasure almost on a par with that very first sea swim. Though not, it seems, for Gen Z. What footwear does Gen Z pack for a beach holiday? Boots. Not even ankle boots, but heavy leather biker boots, riding boots or cowboy boots, as though they’re off on a soggy British minibreak.

Do Pack a Sarong

For Gen X, sarongs are passé items that have long been superseded by far chicer cover-ups that didn’t exist when they were teens. There were no beach-friendly “co-ords” in the Eighties: the word didn’t even exist. Which is why most of us are still scarred by the lurid tie-dye sarongs we bought at a hippie market but never quite figured out how to wear without looking like Judith Chalmers. Gen Z takes a different view. In what is surely one of the least likely glow ups of all time, the sarong has morphed from being a dispiriting rectangle of doom to a jaunty holiday must-have. For this, sarong manufacturers worldwide can thank TikTok, whose “how to” tutorials have proved far more effective than the instructions in Cosmopolitan circa 1989.

Don't Pack a Low SPF

You may have spent your teenage years slathered in greasy, coconut-scented “Factor 2”, but Gen Z takes a dim view of such irresponsible tanning. Every morning, they will diligently google the UV Index, a metric that didn’t exist in the Eighties, but which they assure you is far more important than the temperature outside. “It’s only six today,” they’ll say, even when it’s 31 degrees outside and sunny. They wouldn’t dream of venturing out with anything lower than SPF50 on their face, while SPF15 is strictly for those final days of sunning once a base tan has been acquired. Whatever you may learn from Gen Z, there are few more important lessons than this.

Do Keep Your Bikini On

Obviously, you’ll keep your bikini on – nothing is more embarrassing than your own mother, topless on a beach, doing her best impression of Bo Derek – but if you want to sunbathe the Gen Z way, you’ll also keep its straps firmly in place. Where Gen X shucks them down or takes them off in the pursuit of the holy grail that is an even tan, Gen Z actively cultivates having strap marks. Strap marks to Gen Z are what watch marks were to their parents. Which makes sense, given that none of them wear a watch.

But Don't Wear a Matching One

As a generation taught stringently by their own mothers always to match their knickers and their bra (“Imagine if you were in an accident!” one friend’s mum admonished her sternly), the idea of wearing your bikini top with some random mismatched bottoms is anathema to Gen X. For Gen Z, however, it’s lame to be so matchy-matchy. Favourite combos include, but are not limited to: white top/black bottoms, pink top/gold bottoms, and clashing patterns such as paisley and polka-dot, or floral and stripe.

Do Pack Your Make-Up

A beach holiday is not an excuse to venture out with the sort of natural, low-maintenance look that your magazines used to tell you should be effected. This is not the time to “ditch the mascara” or “swap your usual foundation for a sun-kissed glow”. For Gen Z, it’s all about doing “a full face” – not in the daytime, but definitely for dinner. This tends to mean eyes or lips: never both, as that would be over-egging the pudding. Skin is the real focus: think dewy glow, glassy finish and highlighted contours – not forgetting the blob of Iridescently Illuminating Luminiser on the end of the nose, for never does a cult product come with a short and snappy name these days.

Don't Pack Your Kaftan

Breezy summer cover-up or weirdly ageing garment that makes you look like a member of a cult? Gen Z is not a fan. They prefer a crochet tank dress, a towelling playsuit or a cheesecloth co-ord – though not as much as they prefer an oversized stripy cotton shirt, worn over everything.

Do Pack Your Jewellery

If you want to holiday the Gen Z way, you must pack every necklace, bangle, earring, belly chain and anklet you possess. In fact, don’t: they might need your baggage allowance to accommodate their own. While in the Eighties you’d likely have saved your favourite jewellery “for best”, this idea is outdated, thanks to the advent (and insane popularity) of tarnish-free jewellery. This is a revolution for those of us who spent our holidays with nasty green lines snaking round our throats; the result of cheap plating that went puce in the sea. By contrast, tarnish-free jewellery – usually made from stainless steel and coated with PVD (physical vapour deposition, a process that claims to make it “life resistant”) – is durable and affordable. Affordable brands include Hey Harper, Lovisa and Bohomoon, or try Tilly Sveaas and Mejuri for a costlier treat – then hide them from your teens.