AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
One of this year's top fashion items could be buried deep in your dresser - old T-shirts with graphic elements - superheroes, business logos, college mascots, band names, funny slogans, anything really, are filling runways and red carpets. Christian Allaire is a senior fashion style writer at Vogue, and he joins us now. Good morning.
CHRISTIAN ALLAIRE: Good morning.
RASCOE: OK. So I'm wearing one of my favorite T-shirts today. It is X-Men, a big picture of Rogue kissing Gambit. I hear you're also wearing one of your, like, beloved graphic tees. Can you describe it?
ALLAIRE: I am. I'm wearing a Britney Spears Circus Tour T-shirt, circa 2009. It is - has a big B on the front, and the B is wearing a top hat.
RASCOE: Oh, my goodness. OK, that sounds really cool.
ALLAIRE: We love Britney.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Exactly. What makes a good graphic tee?
ALLAIRE: I think a good graphic tee draws the eye in. You know, you might see a total stranger wearing it, and if you're compelled to look at it, maybe even talk to them about it, then I think a graphic tee has done its job. It's a conversation starter.
RASCOE: When did the graphic tee trend take off, and I guess, like, in this latest iteration of it?
ALLAIRE: Well, I mean, yeah, graphic tees have been around since who knows when? They really have been pervasive in fashion forever. But this past fall season is when we really saw it have a big presence on the runways. You know, I think of, you know, a big show like Chanel, for instance. The pre-fall show was shown here in New York. The designer Matthieu Blazy showed these sort of sequined I Love New York T-shirts on the runway, and they were styled with, you know, his signature tweed skirt suits.
And another show, for instance, Stella McCartney, she had tank that said, my dad is a rock star, because obviously, her father is Paul McCartney. But she showed that with these really bejeweled, multicolor fancy jeans. So I think there's this juxtaposition of high and low that we're seeing on the runway.
RASCOE: And I also read now that the older and more worn out your T-shirt is, the better, and that's kind of, like, reminiscent of the acid-washed jeans from the '80s or the heroine-chic era of the '90s. Like, why does fashion continue to gravitate toward this messy, thrown-together aesthetic?
ALLAIRE: Well, I think there's this big obsession with vintage in fashion. I mean, you look at any red carpet and all the celebrities are wearing archive - the older, the better. And so it only makes sense then that that also translates to graphic tees. I think people want very rare or very old graphic tees. It just symbolizes something special or something no one else has. You know, I think of a store like What Goes Around Comes Around, which specializes in vintage. They have a whole section of archival graphic tees that can go for hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
RASCOE: Is there any concern in fashion, you know, kind of like there is in movies on TV where it's like we're constantly going back to the old and revamping it? Like, is there any concern that, you know, we're not getting new ideas, we just keep recycling the old stuff?
ALLAIRE: I mean, yes, fashion is cyclical, for sure. I think nothing is ever really new. It's always building on a trend that's already happened. But I think that's not necessarily always a bad thing. I mean, clearly, it proves that people still want to wear graphic tees in the year 2026. You know, I think of, like, the '80s when Katharine Hamnett - she was one of the OG pioneers of the graphic tee, and hers were very political but now they're, you know, a little bit more fun and a little bit more cheeky and light-hearted. So the trend evolves, and it's never the same. So I think that's what keeps it exciting.
RASCOE: That's Christian Allaire, a writer for Vogue. Thank you so much for joining us.
ALLAIRE: Thank you.
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