Madelyn Cline Is a Summer Girl in Tommy Hilfiger

Madelyn Cline is a summer girl through and through. “I live in L.A., which is home and is always warm, and Charleston, where I’m from, is the same,” she explains over the phone. “I am the wrong audience for winter.” It makes sense, then, why the actress felt so at ease wearing Tommy Hilfiger’s latest summer collection, embodying the season’s quintessential spirit.

While shooting the campaign for the new wares at the fictional Hilfiger Resort—i.e., the brand’s complete takeover of Soho Beach House Canouan—Cline got the chance to wear her favorite pieces from the drop. “I love how timeless this new collection is. It feels very classic Tommy, but also very modern. It breathes life into the classic Tommy Hilfiger wardrobe,” she says, noting that the striped tank bikini with high-rise bottoms and raffia platforms were two of the standouts.

Echoing Cline, designer Tommy Hilfiger describes the brand’s DNA as preppy, all-American, and classic. “I like anything that has any kind of nautical flavor, but I always want to change it and evolve it and update it, so we’re continually asking, ‘How do we take that nautical stripe and make it different?’” he told ELLE during the campaign shoot. “[This season], we did it in a new type of fabrications—but always with a touch of red, white, and blue as our signature.”

As one of the stars of Netflix’s Outer Banks, a drama series set on the sweltering coast of North Carolina, Cline is no stranger to summer fashion. Naturally, though, her approach to dressing for the hottest months of the year has changed over time. “Over the years, my style has gotten looser and looser. Honestly, I love wearing an oversized button-down—like the classic Oxford in pink, yellow, or white—and styling it like a dress. It’s just easy and relaxed,” she shares, adding that she likes to keep things simple as a way to avoid the all-too-familiar feeling of overthinking an outfit.

Outer Banks is set to drop its fifth and final season next year, giving Cline the space to think about what comes next for her. The actress is feeling especially exploratory at the moment, saying, “[I want to] stretch the mold of what I think I’m capable of, be curious, and test my own boundaries by stepping outside of my comfort zone and redefining what I want this next five, 10 years of my life to look like—and my career as well. It feels like I’m growing up again, in a way...like I’m graduating college, and now I’m looking at internships.”

Though she’s still taking time to enjoy summer while she can. For her, that includes travel plans with her friends: “We like to plan one place abroad that we want to go visit as a group. For the last couple of years, because I’ve been working during the summer...I’ll try to meet them somewhere for a few days, which is really, really nice,” she explains. And when she’s at home, she’s prefers more laidback activities, like barbecues and pool days. “I just love the way summer feels. I think all the traditions revolve around enjoying it—enjoying the time and that freedom that we all get to feel [during that time of year].”