The Best Sarongs & Pareos

There is a particular kind of woman who understands the sarong. She is unhurried. She has somewhere to be at eight, but for now there is the sea, a cold drink sweating on a tiled table, and a single rectangle of silk that transforms her from swimmer to someone you cannot stop looking at. The sarong — or pareo, if you have spent any meaningful time in Tahiti, where the word was born — is the most quietly powerful thing you can pack. It weighs nothing. It folds to the size of a paperback. And it does the work of an entire suitcase: skirt, dress, halter, headscarf, the thing you knot at the hip when the waiter glances over. Below, the pieces we would actually travel with, and the brands who have made the humble wrap into an object of genuine desire.

Melissa Odabash — The Original Riviera Wrap

If the sarong has a patron saint, it is Melissa Odabash. The Capri-by-way-of-California designer practically wrote the grammar of poolside dressing, and her pareos remain the benchmark: fine cotton voile and silk in painterly prints, finished with that signature gold-coin or shell trim that announces, discreetly, that you did not buy this at the airport. They tie a dozen ways and photograph like a dream against any shade of marble. This is the wrap you will still be reaching for in ten summers. Shop Melissa Odabash

Vitamin A — Sustainable California Ease

For the woman who wants her beach wardrobe to have a conscience as well as a silhouette, Vitamin A is the answer. The label built its name on responsibly made swim, and its cover-ups carry the same DNA: organic cottons, crinkled gauzes and earthy, sun-bleached tones that look as though they were dyed by the Pacific itself. A Vitamin A pareo knotted over a bronze maillot is the entire mood of a Malibu morning — relaxed, a little undone, expensively simple. It is the cover-up that never looks like it is trying. Shop Vitamin A

Hunza G — The Crinkle That Conquered the Beach

You know Hunza G for that miraculous one-size crinkle fabric, the kind that flatters with an almost suspicious generosity. The good news is the crinkle does not stop at the swimsuit. Their matching wraps and skirts let you do the full coordinated set — that head-to-toe, single-shade look beloved of everyone currently on a yacht in the Aegean — without a single fitting-room tantrum. Buy the bikini, buy the wrap, and you have a holiday uniform that takes you from lounger to lunch in one elastic, forgiving move. Shop Hunza G

Tori Praver — Hawaiian Romance, Properly Done

Tori Praver grew up in Maui, and it shows in everything she makes. Her sarongs trade the slick resort-shop print for something softer and more romantic — botanical florals, gauzy chiffons, the sort of barely-there fabric that lifts in the breeze and behaves like a film still. Worn as a long skirt slung low on the hips, with a vintage gold chain and bare feet, a Tori Praver wrap is high-summer escapism in a single piece. This is the one for the honeymoon, or for anyone who simply wishes to look as though they are on one. Shop Tori Praver

L*Space — The Statement Print

When you want your beach exit to actually turn heads, L*Space is the move. The Californian label has a real gift for the bold, graphic print and the architectural knot — wraps that come pre-engineered with ties and gathers so you get a proper dress, not a hopeful rectangle and a prayer. Throw one over a clean black one-piece and you have an outfit that walks straight from the sand into a beach club without breaking stride. For the woman who treats the shoreline as a runway, this is your label. Shop L*Space

Monday Swimwear — The Travel-Hardened Essential

Founded by two women who have lived out of a carry-on, Monday Swimwear designs with the actual logistics of a holiday in mind. Their cover-ups and sarong-skirts are made from fabrics chosen to survive a beach bag, a flight and a sea swim without crumpling into despair — substantial enough to feel luxurious, light enough to forget you packed them. If you want one wrap that simply works, in a flattering neutral that goes with every suit you own, start here. It is the most quietly useful thing on this list. Shop Monday Swimwear

How to Tie It — and Wear It Everywhere

The whole point of a sarong is its shape-shifting, so do not let yours live a single, knotted-at-the-waist life. For a long skirt, wrap behind the back and knot low at one hip — the asymmetry is what reads as chic rather than coverage. For a halter dress, hold it behind you, bring both top corners over your shoulders and tie at the nape, then knot the lower corners at the hip for a sarong-dress that takes you to dinner. A strapless option: wrap above the bust, tuck or tie at the centre, and let it fall to a midi. The styling rules are mercifully few. Match your metals — a gold-trimmed pareo wants gold jewellery, not silver. Let a silk wrap stay loose and a cotton one sit a touch more structured. And resist the urge to over-accessorise; the sarong is the statement, so the rest of you should simply get out of its way. For more of our warm-weather edits and the brands we keep returning to, browse the edit. Pack one beautiful wrap, and you will quietly out-dress every overstuffed suitcase on the beach.