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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Xaymaca Awoyungbo

Why the quarter-zip trend is about much more than jumpers

NIke Tech TikTok Andrew Groves London Ralph Lauren
Xaymaca Awoyungbo at a quarter-zip meetup in London.
Xaymaca Awoyungbo at a quarter-zip meetup in London. Photograph: Karen Stanley/The Guardian

As I’m wearing a quarter-zip jumper and sipping on an iced matcha, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s my last day of term before the school holidays. The giveaway is it’s a Saturday in London’s Soho, and I’m surrounded by 20 or so young men between the ages of 13 and 21 who are all here for London’s first ever “quarter-zip meetup”.

Organised, rather bizarrely, by sibling rappers OKay the Duo, the meetup is the latest manifestation of a growing tongue-in-cheek trend for quarter-zips and matcha that has taken over TikTok globally. Previous meetups have taken place in Houston and Rotterdam.

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