Pretty Tough: How to Style a Band Tee

Band tees are one of those dangerous, sartorial choices. You can’t pop on a Rolling Stones tee without somebody going: ‘Rolling Stones eh? What’s your favourite song? Favourite album? Who is the lead singer’s grandmother’s chiropractor? Oh, you don’t know? *SCOFF* You’re not even a fan.’

We are all this person. You’re lying if you say you haven’t beamed from within at the opportunity to ask this terrifying set of questions, even if you do feel like a dick doing it. From hereon out, let’s just all agree that band tees look cool, and yeah, maybe we do only know the three bestselling songs we hastily learned from Spotify on the day of purchase, but so what? We’re wannabes and proud.

Unless you’re super tall, super slim and possess the perfect amount of beachy waves, styling a band tee can sometimes require more effort than you want your look to admit. You definitely don’t want to be in the chubby middle aged man arena where you look like you’ve given up your day job to ‘professionally’ game all day. On the other hand, you also don’t want to look like a tween who has gone nuts in H&M with their birthday money. So how do you go about styling a band tee?

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The annoying thing is, band tees look best when the look is effortless. Isn’t that the case with everything? Effortless cool girl chic is the ultimate cock tease. However, there are some staple items that you can go back to time and time again to ensure that you’re treading the right balance. First of all, a pair of skinny jeans are never going to let you down. The blacker the better, and a little busted knee wouldn’t go amiss (although I would avoid anything too distressed, it’s trying too hard to look like you haven’t tried at all).

Next up, some kind of killer, don’t-fuck-with-me-shoe. The ‘it’ girl shoe of choice has to be a black boot, but switching it up, I opted for a pair of patent pointed low-heels, complete with an obligatory bad gal buckle at the ankle. Add in some two-day old, dry-shampooed hair, lashings of jewellery that you wore the night before (or secretly, painstakingly curated that morning) and et voila, your band tee ready.

And then you can mix it up. My instinct in the bag department was to go for something black with a silver chain, but instead, I binned the rule book and shot to the other end of the spectrum. Introducing the Radley Millibank Medium in Taupe. It’s soft, elegant, and the perfect size for carrying around your essentials during the day (I always find bags just *that* bit too small). Not what you would expect with a band tee and skinny jeans combo, but hey, fuck it. If soft pink isn’t your thing, you can shop Radley bags in all sizes, colours and styles here.

Of course, I had to take some obligatory snaps of the boy. Dem All Saints trousers doe.