Challengers, Luca Guadagnino’s new steamy love-triangle tennis flick, opens in cinemas today, having already proved itself a critical ace for its A-list cast counting Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. But while the grand slam film has pushed on-court style into the limelight for spring and summer (anyone for tenniscore?) its cult fashion item is a little more left field — a bold slogan t-shirt which reads, loudly, ‘I TOLD YA’.
The Call Me By Your Name director’s latest offering was always going to draw attention to its wardrobe; he enlisted London Fashion Week star and creative director of Loewe, JW Anderson, to design them. But it is this t-shirt, pinched from historic shots of JFK Jr wearing a matching style while throwing a frisbee for his Alsatian in the early nineties, which appears to have won match point. It is worn by Zendaya and Faist in the film, as well as about town; O’Connor wore a spin off version (‘I TOLD YA’ printed on his tuxedo shirt for the UK premiere), while Anderson himself sported the grey iteration for a special Loewe screening of the film in London.
Now being produced for an exclusive run by Loewe, Anderson is selling the t-shirts (£225) as well as sweatshirts (£475), and has recreated the original JFK pap shorts with model lookalike Tommy Hackett for a mini-marketing campaign. In what is a meta-dupe of sorts, this luxury style tee also exists across the internet for considerably cheaper (£16.95, amazon.co.uk).
They join the pile of slogan tops which are popular as ever within luxury brands at the moment — from S.S Daley’s “SNUG AS A BUG” jumper and Stella McCartney’s white vest which read “ABOUT FUCKING TIME!”, both for autumn winter 2024, to Moschino’s Pre-Fall 24 collection which leant on the trick to spruce its knits, embroidered with the phrase “SAME OLD CHIC”, and tees, which read “YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS”.
They are a celebrity favourite, too. This month alone, Sabrina Carpenter’s “jesus was a carpenter” t-shirt, worn to perform at Coachella, was an instant internet sensation, while Olivia Rodrigo wore a white vest with “Carrie Bradshaw AF” splayed across her in pink lettering for her Guts Tour in Nashville.
If you want to get political, queen of the spiky t-shirt is Katharine Hamnett, who famously wore a “58% Don't Want Pershing” top to meet then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984 in protest of nuclear weapons. She has since made versions which read: “CANCEL BREXIT”, “CHOOSE LOVE” AND “SAVE OUR SEAS”.
However if its a nod to Challengers which takes the spot as bestseller this month, well, I told ya so.
Relaxed fit T-shirt in cotton, £225, loewe.com
Relaxed fit T-shirt in cotton, £225, loewe.com
