Khaite strips resort back to coastal grandmother essentials

Khaite is the clearest sign that coastal grandmother has moved beyond the beach house. In Resort 2027, Catherine Holstein kept the mood soft and sun-faded, but she paired getaway ease with substantial outerwear, sharp tailoring and fabrics that carry real weight. The result is coastal grandmother stripped down to its essentials, then rebuilt as a sharper, more urban luxury code.

The new shape of coastal grandmother

The term coastal grandmother was coined in 2022 by TikToker Lex Nicoleta, and the appeal was immediate because it gave a name to something women already understood: relaxed classics, muted hues and an effortless vacation polish with Nancy Meyers energy. The aesthetic took on even more cultural reach once Anne Hathaway posted her own coastal-grandmother-inspired look, turning the idea from internet shorthand into a real style reference point.

What Khaite is doing now feels like the next, more grown-up chapter. This is no longer just linen, straw and seaside softness. It is the same breezy confidence, but tightened up with restraint, cleaner lines and the kind of investment pieces that work far from any shoreline.

Why Khaite makes sense here

The brand’s timing is part of the story. Khaite was founded in 2016 by creative director Catherine Holstein and is based in New York, which makes its take on coastal ease feel intentionally metropolitan rather than nostalgia-driven. WWD described Resort 2027 as part of the label’s 10-year milestone, and that anniversary gives the collection extra weight: Holstein is not chasing a trend, she is refining the language that made the brand matter in the first place.

That language has always revolved around exceptional outerwear, luxurious fabrications and a point of view that feels distinctly her own. WWD’s review also notes that resort is especially suited to wardrobes that move between climates and occasions because of its extended selling period and global reach. That matters here, because coastal grandmother only works when it can travel beyond the fantasy of a summer house. Khaite understands that the modern version needs to function in the city, on a plane, in colder weather and in real life.

Holstein’s industry position reinforces the point. She won the CFDA American Womenswear Designer of the Year award in both 2022 and 2023, and that recognition has helped cement Khaite as one of the clearest voices in American luxury. The brand’s momentum is also commercial, not just aesthetic. In 2023, Khaite received a significant investment from growth equity firm Stripes to accelerate its physical retail footprint, and it has since expanded with brick-and-mortar locations domestically and in Korea.

What to wear now

This is the coastal grandmother wardrobe worth paying attention to now, because it has shape, contrast and staying power. Khaite’s Resort 2027 collection leaned into airy getaway dressing, but it set that softness against substantial outerwear, delicate lingerie references against sharp tailoring, and polished surfaces against undone ones. The tension is what makes it modern.

The most useful pieces sit in that middle ground between relaxed and exacting:

• substantial outerwear that gives a soft outfit backbone
• silk jersey T-shirts that read polished, not precious
• new cashmere jersey developments for warmth without bulk
• distressed leather and shearling for texture and seasonless attitude
• technical fabrics and revived archival yarns for a cleaner, more pragmatic finish

This is what distinguishes the current coastal-grandmother mood from the more literal version that once meant a loose shirt, a woven bag and a day near the water. Khaite is showing that the look gets more interesting when one piece is tactile and the other is disciplined, when the silhouette slips and then snaps back into place.

The accessories tell you where the trend is heading

The strongest accessory signal in the collection is the Lotus bag, one of Khaite’s longest-running handbag families. It now accounts for roughly 25 percent of handbag sales, which is not just a product statistic, it is a sign that the brand’s version of quiet luxury has become a true wardrobe habit. The bag returned in updated proportions and finishes, which feels exactly right for a trend that is becoming more streamlined rather than more decorative.

That detail matters because it shows where the coastal-grandmother idea is landing in 2026. The look is no longer about packing for a getaway. It is about choosing pieces that look composed in daylight, travel well, and still feel special when the season changes. A bag that can anchor the entire offer does more for the category than another novelty tote ever could.

What to skip

The most persuasive thing about Khaite’s take is what it leaves out. It skips the literal resort clichés and the overexplained version of coastal style. There is no need to overload the look with beach props, overworked nautical references or a pile of easy basics that never quite add up to elegance.

What works instead is sharper editing. Keep the palette quiet. Let texture do the work. Pair something airy with something structured. Use cashmere, shearling and leather to keep the look grounded, and rely on tailoring to prevent the softness from drifting into costume. Coastal grandmother becomes far more compelling when it is treated as a code, not a theme.

That is why Khaite’s version matters: it turns a once-sunny style shorthand into a wardrobe with discipline, weight and range. The result feels less like a summer mood and more like a standard for how modern luxury should look when it wants to be both relaxed and exact.