I’ll be honest: I’ve been unintentionally dressing like a camp counselor for years now. I just didn’t realise it until my friend Emma told me last week, “You look like you ready to teach someone how to tie a friendship bracelet.” And I was wearing khaki shorts, a button-down, and hiking boots I’ve never once hiked in. Not only had I unintentionally nailed down the camp counselor look, Emma was totally right and I wasn’t even mad.
Camp counselor chic has taken over the fashion industry, and frankly I’m enjoying every second of it. I live for things that make no sense environmentally speaking. We’re buying clothes intended for weekend camping trips we’ll never take from brands that probably didn’t even camp when they were kids.
I’ll never live that life, yet somehow fashion has made me want to cosplay it. In grade school I was poor and we spent most summers camping to avoid turning on the air conditioning.
Needless to say, everyone I knew who camped actually knew how to use camping equipment.
We’d load up the car and trek out into the wilderness with all the gear my parents spent all summer couponing and clipping ads to buy.
Fast forward thirty years. I buy “hiking” boots that I wear to get coffee but have never once hiked in.
I actually consider buying cargo shorts so I have more pockets for city life. As ironic as it is that fashion has fully embraced camp counselor chic you can’t knock its recent adaptation of athletic polyester. It’s not just camp counselor though.
It truly feels like every outdoorsy aesthetic from the last few decades has collided to create Paris fashion week’s current darling: Dressing like you could give both outdoor skills and life advice to children if we lived in world where that was still a thing. Like captain of the canoe trip boss. My first encounter with camp counselor chic came while attending a sustainable fashion panel in Portland.
Because of course it did. I’d say half the room was wearing camp counselor lookalikes with expensive brand names replacing council shirts. Miu Miu shorts and vintage Sun Inn camp t-shirts. $400 hiking boots that had probably never actually touched a hiking trail.
Rope bracelets. Camp counselor aesthetic tends to rank pretty high on the sustainability scale. Clothes that were meant to be worn hiking all day, building crafts by a lake, are now being worn to brunch.
They lean heavily on durable fabrics, thoughtful details meant to be functional, and simple silhouettes that won’t feel dated in five years. Even if we never plan on doing any of those activities in said clothes. Obviously luxury brands have thrown their hat in the ring and it isn’t pretty.
You’ll see $3,000 camp shirts from Hermès and Prada trainers claiming to work for hiking but will autumn apart after your weekly farmers market trip. Fast fashion has met athleisure and we all lost our minds. Now they’re draping tent material over models and calling it technical.
I’ve approached this trend from my normal sustainable fashion angle which includes lots of thrifting and patronage of actual outdoorsy companies. Real Patagonia shorts that still look good from the early 90s. Vintage camp t-shirts from actual camps my parents made me go to in Maine.
Classic L.L.Bean that was made to last decades, not wash out after a few wears. Thrift stores all over Seattle have camp counselor gold. I scored the perfect 1980s camp counselor windbreaker last month; complete with whistle embroidered on the chest; for $8.
It’s become my favourite piece to wear, and people love it. They actually stop me to compliment my camp attire more than they have any other trendy item I own. That goes for fashion in general too.
There’s something less overtly feminine or masculine about it. They’re just clothes. Shorts are shorts.
Button downs are button downs. Sure they might style it different, but the foundational garments aren’t blatantly for one sex or the other. Outside of performance athletics we rarely see unisex uniforms anymore and it’s refreshing.
I think camp counselor gives us all an underlying competence fantasy. Life sucks right now. We all feel helpless to change or control anything and putting on an outfit that implies I could handle a bunch of kids building fires is great therapy.
Not only do I look like I know what I’m doing, I look like I have the authority to tell you what to do. But in a way that’s comforting, not threatening. I think there’s also nostalgia at play here but for most of us we didn’t actually experience summer camp.
I went to day camp a few times as a child but it wasn’t the same. That being said, fashion loves borrowed nostalgia because no one can argue with it feeling that way to them. Looking at this from an environmental standpoint it actually makes sense too.
We’re all supposed to be spending more time outdoors, connecting with nature, being better humans about the ways we consume once quarantine is over. Clothes that make it look like we’re living this already exist but don’t require you to know how to start a fire without lighters. Also, holy shit the colour palette of everything.
Can we talk about how camp counselor chic is basically the antithesis of Instagram coloured clothes? Bright whites that have seen better days. Pastel shades.
Earthy neutrals. Safety orange. Bright green.
Colours that look atrocious under a ring lamp but 10/10 in real sunlight. Speaking of sunlight, my camp counselor wardrobe has been building for months now. I tried really hard to buy pieces I’ll actually wear when this trend hopefully dies (we all know it won’t).
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High waisted vintage Levi shorts that are easy to run around in but still look cute. An army of camp shirts ranging from faded to barely faded at all. Canvas trainers that will only look more stylish with dirt on them.
Birkenstock Arizonas I bought second hand and are severely damaging my feet just to look like they’ve been broken in forever. To get really extra with it I even bought rope to make my own rope bracelet. Because do you know what they don’t sell at REI?
Expensive jewellery made to look like rope. Instead I bought a rope bracelet from a brand that ironically charges $200 for what amounts to twisting some cord together. But hey, at least it’s ethically made?
Thoughts and comments about how sustainable jewellery production really works are below. Trust the lighting when I’m showing you all my camp counselor outfit ideas. Some of these pieces photograph absolutely horrendous compared to how they look IRL.
We accept blue and yellow wearing black as the superior colour combination for fashion but bright whites and greens look trash under certain lights. Stay tuned for more awesome colour combinations that will never trend on Instagram because they’re impossible to photograph. I’ll be the first to admit that camp counselor isn’t one solid aesthetic.
There are so many tiers and subsections that people like me spend hours online researching before dropping cash. Luxury camp; high end brands doing their take. Vintage camp; actual vintage shirts from legit camps.
Ironic camp; full on leaning into the ugliest options. In my personal life I exist somewhere between vintage and ironic. I love the camp counselor aesthetic but also know how ironically I got into it.
Camp Chic is basically me cosplaying as someone I’m not. And that’s okay! It’s dress up and we all love dress up.
Camp counselor has become a summer uniform for me. Aside from being cute as hell and comfortable, a lot of these clothes I can actually wear while doing outdoor activities I will do. Like walking to the farmers market.
Or beer gardens. Or anywhere that’s suddenly 80 degrees but still Seattle so there’s dew on the grass. I could also totally go rock climbing in these…if I felt like it.
One thing I will say is that people I know who actually like the outdoors are suddenly cool again because of these trends. Friends are showing up to dinner in Patagonia shorts. Tevas, which were worn exclusively by surfer bros until recently, are acceptable again.
L.L.Bean sellouts are a “look” at fashion events. No one’s business model changed, we just care about clothes that look like they could be used for a hobby again. Speaking of actually purchasing this trend in a semi-sustainable way.
First, buy from real outdoor companies. You’ll get a higher quality piece that actually looks like what fashion brands are merely riffing on. Support the brands that have been doing it for decades instead of jumping on a trend like everyone else.
Secondly, go vintage if you can! There’s something so authentic about real camp counselor gear from the 80s and 90s that you’ll never get from a brand that just started doing camp-inspired looks. Not to mention keeping clothes out of a landfill and supporting circular fashion is a win any way you slice it.
Will we expand beyond camp counselor into more outdoorsy trends? I think subcultures will get more specific. Maybe rock climbing guru chic?
Wilderness expert vibes? I honestly can’t wait to see how this plays out and what other getaways into the outdoors we’ll see on runways this season. The hiking boots I bought that have never seen a hiking trail make me feel like I could actually hike a trail.
The cargo shorts I’m willing to publicly wear in 2022 have enough pockets to store all my organic farmer market snacks. It’s the kind of trend that allows me to buy practical clothes and actually feel cool wearing them. Sure they may not be the most sustainable option out there but it’s a step.
This past weekend I wore the full monty. Vintage shorts, faded camp t-shirt, hiking boots, canvas tote bag, and the rope bracelet I made myself.
To pick up groceries from the farmers market.
And do you know what?
I felt like me. More me than I think I have in anything trendy I’ve worn in awhile.
So there’s that. If that’s what camping my style gets me, sign me up forever. Is my new aspiration to become a camp counselor?
Nah. I kill plants. I can’t imagine killing kids.
But will I continue buying outfits that make me feel like I could do both? You bet your bitch. Because at the end of the day, fashion should always make you feel like the best version of yourself.
Right now that’s someone who owns enough rope to tie bracelets.
