How to wear boxer shorts like a Scandi girl

While at Copenhagen Fashion Week, a group of friends and I tried to come up with the perfect way to describe the Danish capital. Sure, it’s quaint. It’s cute. But the run-of-the-mill adjectives didn’t feel right. Finally, my friend and fellow fashion writer Danya Issawi put it perfectly: “The city was crafted by the hands of God alongside Santa Claus, and then placed on earth before they got distracted by inventing plagues.” It feels perfect, but not in an eerie way. It is the kind of place you can run around in buying cardamon buns, while wearing a pair of boxer shorts without fear of judgment.

Wearing boxer shorts and buying pastries quickly became my favourite morning activity while I was there last week. I had packed two pairs of boxers: a light blue striped pair by Almina Concept and a patent black silk pair by Loewe. I had been eyeing the first pair for months, and the second had been in my closet even longer. They were an item I had been wanting to experiment with styling, but I hadn’t quite figured out how. Their casualness intimidated me. But Copenhagen seemed like the perfect place to try.

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I associate boxer shorts and pajama pants with the Scandi city. It feels like a key part of the look there. There is a quirky ease to the way everyone in Copenhagen dresses: It’s youthful, but not childlike; it’s fun, but not too over-the-top. Copenhageners wear pajamas, but style them with flower clips, sailor collar tops, vintage sequin bags, and clogs. So no one ever looks like they just woke up from a deep slumber, but instead as if they climbed out of a dream.

For the very first day of Copenhagen Fashion Week, I opted to style the Almina Concept boxers. I first tried them on with a white OpéraSport T-shirt, but it felt too casual. The soothing light blue of the stripes reminded me of a floral pattern on a sheer Simone Rocha garner top I’d scored on the RealReal earlier in the year, so I layered it over the tee. As it turns out, the boxers were the perfect base for the funky top that, so far, I had only worn over dresses. I threw on a vintage micro Old Navy cardigan and my go-to Miu Miu ballet flats. When I headed out to the first show on the schedule (which, coincidentally, was OpéraSport), three different locals approached me to compliment me—in Danish! They seemed surprised to realise I didn’t speak the language, and I was honoured.

For so long, I had studied Scandi style online and pored over CPHFW street style. I became obsessed with the way the Danes mixed and mashed so many different kinds of aesthetics and made the result something singular. To be confused for one of their own was a compliment I didn’t even know I needed. It made my week. The boxer shorts were working.

The next morning, I woke up with some time to—obviously—get more pastries. My standard way of packing for work trips like this is to pack just enough for every event I have to attend, and then to wear a random assortment of fashion-y items for menial errands and tasks that make me look like the eclectic character I have forever aspired to be.

But these boxers finally provided me with the casual base for in-between Fashion Week moments that I have always craved. I slipped them on with a scalloped cashmere tank top by the Great Eros, a tiny red Cham cardigan, and a pair of pearly Simone Rocha Crocs. It was the only outfit I hadn’t planned out ahead of time, but became a favourite I wore nearly every other morning. It had the Scandi ease I craved, but also still made me as giddy as any other Fashion Week outfit. When I walked back to the hotel in it after a pastry run, I felt like I wasn’t just in Copenhagen—I was Copenhagen.

I decided to round out the week with a final boxers look with the pair by Loewe. I’d scored them at an outlet upstate, along with a pink scarf top that is far and away the hardest item to style in my wardrobe. It is exactly what it sounds like: a long scarf attached to a tank top that can be twisted into a handful of looks. The top is complicated and funky. It doesn’t even present as a top. From afar, it looks like I might have just wrapped myself up in a scarf and somehow made it look good. I figured the boxer shorts might be able to balance it out—and they did. Worn with a vintage yellow Miu Miu bag, Sandy Liang ballet Mary Janes, and a white ruffle Good Squish scrunchie, they became the perfect summer outfit.

While there were plenty of takeaways from the actual Fashion Week, how to style boxer shorts felt like the biggest style lesson I really learned. Now when I see them in the back of my closet, I’ll no longer feel fear, but instead envision cardamom buns, Copenhagen, and the perfect base for every look.

This article was first published in harpersbazaar.com in August 2024. 

All images: Tara Gonzalez