If you took a walk through San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood today, you’d think the hippie era never ended. The neighborhood remains rife with free-spirited, wandering souls, straight out of the grooviest decade. But increasingly, various other remnants of the late 1960s and ’70s are surging back into vogue, and showing up far outside S.F.’s city’s limits. Trucker hats and flared jeans come to mind (thanks Kendrick), but perhaps the coolest thing to resurface—with help from the likes of Paul Mescal—is the ringer tee.
With its contrasting collars and sleeve hems, tinted in a variety of splashy colors, the style first took off with the youth and countercultural movements of that time. (Whether or not your shirt had a graphic or pattern on it, those little hits of color gave the ringer tee a playful, subversive quality that icons like John Lennon seized upon.) Today, the ringer tee has re-emerged—thanks to assists from Kapital, Bode, Celine Homme, and other leading designers—as a strong and simple route to upping your style while still keeping your look under control.
Where to start? Any of the ringer tees below are worthy pick-ups, but a simple white ringer tee is probably the perfect place to begin—dip your cautious toes and add just a touch of visual interest to an otherwise dusty outfit. To start, rock the ringer solo with a pair of your best-fitting jeans. Then, once you’re ready to level up, take it a step further and layer it under a casual button-up shirt, maybe even one with dizzying patterns or funky graphics. Go ahead: Your fit-pic mirror awaits.