Brown isn’t just for fall, and this outfit is the proof

I tend to think of brown as a fall color, something that belongs alongside navy and olive and all the other shades you reach for when the leaves start turning. But lately I’ve been wearing it through spring and into summer, and the trick is pretty simple: pair it with lighter, more saturated colors that keep the brown from pulling the whole outfit into a darker, heavier direction.

This Getup is a good example of what I mean. A brown linen chore coat over a medium-wash denim shirt and off-white jeans, with tan suede boots and a few small accessories that tie it together with a little personality.

Brown Linen Chore Coat

I picked this up at a Uniqlo in Tokyo, and while they do sell it stateside (nice), it’s currently out of stock (bummer). The good news is there are plenty of linen-blend chore coats in brown and brown-adjacent shades at various price points. I’ve listed a few above to match your budget.

What’s been surprising to me is how useful a lightweight linen coat actually is in warmer weather. I’ve had lightweight jackets and shirt jackets before, but this is my first linen-blend in this style, and the difference is real. Thrown over a t-shirt or a button-down, it adds just enough structure and visual interest without adding any noticeable heat or weight. That might sound like a small thing, but in that stretch of spring where you want a layer but don’t need warmth, it’s the kind of jacket that earns a lot of wear.

Denim Shirt

This is one of my most-worn shirts in real life, to the point where I’m a little self-conscious that certain friends only ever see me in it. But there’s a reason it gets reached for so often. The denim has a really nice drape to it, a softness in the way it falls that makes it comfortable and easy to wear in Los Angeles regardless of the weather or where I’m headed. It slides across those situations without much thought.

In this outfit, the rich medium-dark blue adds spring color in a way that feels slightly vintage, and I love how it sits against both the brown coat and the white denim on their own. Put all three together and you get a warm, spring-appropriate palette where the colors are clearly different but never fighting each other.

Off-White Jeans

This is my first go with the Levi’s 555, which I landed on after a fair amount of research and returns looking for something with a more relaxed fit and higher rise than my 501s (which I still wear and like). The 555 gets me a little closer to those goals, though they weren’t the perfect win I was hoping for. I plan on featuring them more and getting into the details later.

The natural white colorway (a slightly warmer tone, not a bright copy-paper white) in this looser fit makes white jeans easier to wear than a slimmer, optic-white version would.

And look, white jeans aren’t actually a hard thing to pull off, but I’ll admit they can feel like a move before you put them on. Once you’re actually wearing them, that feeling disappears completely and you just feel well-dressed and put together. If that hesitation sounds familiar, just know it goes away, and the warmer shade plus the relaxed fit make the adjustment even smoother.

Tan Suede Chukka Boots

An easy, no-nonsense pull here. Tan suede chukkas are comfortable in warmer months, and they bring a bit of enduring style that threads in an English or collegiate quality alongside the western denim shirt, the linen coat, and the looser white denim. The Clarks Desert Boot has military roots that go back decades, but at this point it just reads as a smart casual shoe that works with almost everything. The crepe sole keeps it casual, and the tan suede picks up on the warmth of the brown jacket without matching it too closely, which is what you want. Identical shades may look like you were trying to create a set.

Watch

The watch here is my grandfather’s Timex from the middle of the last century, a simple, minimal face on a brown leather strap that works with the coat. Obviously you’re not going to find this exact watch, but a vintage-style Timex like the Waterbury gets you in the same neighborhood at a price that’s hard to argue with.

Jewelry

For years I thought anything beyond a watch felt like a costume, like I was headed to a Pirates of the Caribbean audition. I wrote about how I finally got past that, and the realization that got me there was thinking of clothes as the tempo and jewelry as the groove. Pieces don’t have to match (a gold necklace with a silver ring is perfectly fine), and layering is more about feel and rhythm than symmetry.

In this outfit, where the clothing is fairly restrained in terms of pattern and detail, a simple necklace and bracelet gives the eye somewhere to land and adds a little personality without complicating anything. That article also features a couple different shots with this same denim shirt and a different pair of white jeans, so you can see close ups of a similar style.