Swimsuit

2024 SI Swim Rookie Jena Sims’s Unique Self-Care Ritual Includes Wine In Her Dream Closet

A special addition to her safe haven at home has made the space feel authentic.

Ananya Panchal

Jena Sims

Jena Sims.

Kickstart your New Year with SI Swimsuit’s 31 Days of Wellness! This January, SI Swimsuit will unlock exclusive offerings with brand models, wellness experts, fitness gurus and more, who will guide you through 31 days of rejuvenating workouts, recipes and self-care rituals.

For Jena Sims, wellness means creating a home she feels safe, comfortable, productive, loved and authentically herself in. The swimwear designer and her husband, pro golfer Brooks Koepka, built their Florida home from the ground up and moved in in 2021. They’re still working with designers to make the space as ideal for their growing family as possible, but there’s one part of Sims’s home that’s extra special to her: her dream closet. 

Each week in January, the 2024 SI Swimsuit rookie, who was named co-winner of the Swim Search open casting call last year, will walk us through a special part in her home and and how it relates to her overall well-being.

Creating an introverted oasis at home

The model, entrepreneur and mom of one is coming to terms with the fact that she might be an introvert in 2024. Sims already knew she loved her alone time, but now she’s not ashamed to say it. And she’s built her dream closet as a safe haven as a unique form of self-care. Her “dream closet” features the coolest organizing hacks, the most stylish clothes, lots of colorful decor and a super exciting and unique addition: a wine fridge.

“If I have girlfriends over, they’re like, ‘let’s just go hang out in your closet,’” the Florida native says. “I used to live in L.A. and I loved my old apartment in L.A. I had like brown carpet and like popcorn ceiling. I call it my sh---- apartment. I just loved that. And I get a little taste of that space in my closet. It’s just, it’s exactly me. I can just sit in there. Sometimes I just sit on the floor and drink wine and like scroll TikTok.”

The 35-year-old adds that the closet has cheetah print carpet and tons of super unique and funky paintings. Her clothes are also hung in rainbow color-coordinated order, which she says is a great hack for remembering what she owns and being able to find items quickly.

Sims explains that when she and her husband started planning their house, she and Koepka each got their one “thing” that sparked joy and didn’t necessarily need to make sense to the other.

“I’m the queen of coming home from an event, or a date night, or a girls night and just having that one more glass of wine. That’s the one that gets me. I [could] just come home and go to bed. I don’t have to see what I have open in the fridge,” she admits with a laugh. “Circling back on the introvert thing. It’s the ‘me time’ and I’m going to get the wine.”

Taking inspiration from Sex and the City

Sims isn’t 100% sure where she first got the idea for a wine fridge in her closet, but she brought it up in one of the initial planning meetings with her team of designers.

“I was like, ‘I want a bar in my closet,’ and everyone was like, ‘What? You’re crazy.’ Ultimately, it just turned into sort of like a wet bar, I guess, because it has like a wine fridge, and then I have like a coffee maker—it’s not an actual like bar where there’s like stools or anything,” she explains. “Maybe it’s because we all grew up being obsessed with Sex and the City and Carrie [Bradshaw] getting her dream closet. We grew up on that, and I love fashion. I love clothes and I love the aesthetic of my closet.”

While Sims loves her closet, she isn’t afraid to admit that Koepka’s special shoe closet is the most epic part of the house.

“Brooks really wanted a Nike shoe room where you walk in and it’s just Nikes on every single wall. It’s the coolest room in this house,” she says. “It’s password protected to get in, like so futuristic. That was his like dream room because he’s a collector, and mine was my closet.”

Decluttering her closet for the New Year

Sims notes that since her closet is a sacred space, she keeps it neat and organized. And while she will still hold on to sentimental pieces (like the shirt she wore on her first date with Koepka), she has also gotten into a good habit of donating her baby boy’s clothes once Crew outgrows them.

“Our baby is now five months, he’s outgrowing so much stuff. So it’s been really fun to just donate some of his things and get rid of that because  we don’t need it anymore. We’re also manifesting our next baby to be a girl. So I’m like, if it’s blue [or says baby boy on it] we’re not keeping it,” she shares. “In terms of my own clothing, I used to hang on to so much. I used to literally just shove it into my closet, but my closet is so beautiful now. I love for it to look a certain way. [Now] I either donate clothes, or if it’s a high end item, I’ll consign it. Or, my sister’s my same size so I’ll literally send her pictures of things, and she’s like, ‘yes, yes, yes.’”

Stay tuned as we walk through Sims’s dynamic, cozy and productive office space next Friday.

Make sure to follow SI Swimsuit on YouTube!

Published
Ananya Panchal
ANANYA PANCHAL

Ananya Panchal is a writer on the Lifestyle and Trending News team for SI Swimsuit. Before joining SI Swimsuit in 2022, she worked at Bustle, the San Francisco Chronicle and the TODAY Show. When she is not writing or doom-scrolling on social media, Panchal can be found playing sudoku, rewatching One Tree Hill or trying new restaurants. She's also a coffee and chocolate (separately) enthusiast. Panchal has a bachelor’s in communications and journalism from Boston University.