Merchandise Paradise
Fashion Quarterly – Issue 03, 2023
Did you go to the concert, movie or natural wine store — and get the T-shirt? Sartorial souvenirs are making their mark in fashion, but the trick is getting into them without looking like a walking billboard.
Merchandise fashion is a way of showing who is with the band and who’s not. In the 1950s, Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was one of the first music promoters to capitalise on this opportunity and sell Elvis-branded products —charm bracelets and scarves for fans, and ‘I Hate Elvis’ badges for anyone else. Although Parker is now considered to have had dangerous business practices, his promotional plan undoubtedly helped the singer become a cultural icon.
According to San Francisco rock-music lore, the band tee was invented in the late ’60s by producer Bill Graham for The Grateful Dead. On the back of this success, he started Winterland Productions, and the band-tee business was born. In the ’70s, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin produced iconic tour tees that were followed by the graphic tees of Iron Maiden and Metallica. These designs were a way to promote tours and also became a keepsake that many still have in their wardrobes (or dry-cleaned and on Depop) today, the tour dates on the back helping some become collector’s items.
The style of these band tees still reverberates around the fashion and music industry. Perhaps it’s not so surprising that a reputable illustrator for the underground death-metal scene, Mark Riddick, has worked with Morbid Angel and Slipknot as well as Justin Bieber and Rihanna.
On the cynical side, industry shifts, including online streaming and pandemic restrictions, make merchandise increasingly important for artists who want to pad their pockets. On the more creative side of the things, music ‘artists’ are just that — and many of them are embracing our multi-hyphenate working culture. Bieber has his streetwear line Drew House, while Rihanna has helped reshape the lingerie industry with Savage x Fenty.
In New Zealand, Clementine Valentine, the art-pop duo formerly known as Purple Pilgrims, have created their T-shirts to coincide with the launch of their new album, The Coin that Broke the Fountain Floor, and a September tour. Sisters Clementine and Valentine Nixon have designed tees with their names coiling into each other like vines “the way our vocal harmonies do” for the occasion and personally hand-dye them to ensure each is unique. “We love making merch,” says Clementine, who studied art, design and visual communications. “It gives us an opportunity to expand on many of the ideas we explored in the music.”
Ambience is an essential aspect of Clementine Valentine shows. As such, the sisters are working with experimental perfumer Of Body to distill their album to its essence. “The scent we’re developing conjures our inspiration and all the feelings evoked in us when we listen to our new album,” says Valentine. The Coin that Broke the Fountain Floor perfume will be diffused during shows and available to take home from the merchandise table at the back. With references to mer-mythology, you can expect their shows to have notes of “salt, wishes, concrete, moss, rosewood, thorns, dead rose petals, old coins — something deep and gothic”.
Merchandise like this has created a new way for listeners to explore the band’s sound and introduce it to others, including a now-fan in Paris, who smelt Clementine Valentine’s first scent with Of Body on a stranger in a shop and enquired as to what it was.
Another medium for those who like to be in the know is podcasting. The hosts of the cultural-commentary podcast After Work Drinks, journalists Isabelle Truman and Grace O’Neill, have developed merchandise for their online community. “It was something our listeners had been asking for for years and had become a running in-episode joke because of our good intentions but severe lack of follow through,” says Truman.
For the first drop, the hosts modelled their merch while pretending to be celebrities caught by paparazzi, and asked listeners to direct-message their orders. Within minutes, the podcast’s Instagram account had “close to 1000 messages”. A sympathetic friend helped the pair set up a Shopify website, which sold out of stock in less than 24 hours. Now, new stock is back by popular demand.
“We truly had no idea and were incredibly unprepared for the demand,” says Truman. “We’re both incredibly proud of the community of like-minded people who listen to AWD. It isn’t for everyone, it’s not one of the biggest podcasts in the world — and it’s not meant to be. We feel like we’ve really found our audience and our niche, and wanted to celebrate that by putting some of our most well-known, kind-of IYKYK phrases onto merch, and do it in a really silly, tongue-in-cheek way that felt very true to brand.”
People often listen to podcasts alone, and although hosts may put on listener events, they’re not usually held at stadiums. “I think podcasts can be incredibly parasocial,” says Truman. “It’s quite an intimate thing, especially with the nature and content of ours, to listen to a conversation between two people around the same age as you every week for years. It feels like you’re friends with them, and makes you think you’d be friends with other listeners.”
The in-jokes embroidered on their hats become a nod to other listeners, and the hosts, when they’re offline. “We’ve had so many DMs from ‘the girlies’ — the non-gendered phrase we use for our listeners — who have seen others wearing our merch and have struck up conversations and long-term friendships off the back of it. It’s also a really nice way to support your favourite creators. We’ll never get tired of seeing people wearing it.”
Of course, visual forms of entertainment also see the value in fashionable merchandise. When the Barbie film reached cinemas in July, Mattel had signed more than 100 licensing deals for related apparel, with at least 50 official Barbie brand collaborations. From Chanel’s video supporting the film’s vintage Chanel looks, to Crocs’ chunky ‘B’ platform clogs, everyone had an opportunity to be a part of the Barbie world. In her interview for Chanel, Barbie and brand ambassador Margot Robbie said that the film not only had “the ability to honour a 60-plus-year legacy of a brand, but also have a current cultural conversation at the same time”. The inclusive — and exhaustive — marketing for the movie ensured #barbiecore became a bona fide fashion movement. All we needed to do was think pink.
“It is fun,” says Professor Lisa McNeill, an academic at the University of Otago who researches consumer behaviour and consumption. “For many people, fashion is something they enjoy, that they take pleasure in participating in, and these types of products can enhance that pleasure or build in a lighter, more carefree dimension than ‘regular’ dressing might.”
However, such pop culture popularity also comes with a caveat. “What is interesting regarding the current wave of merchandised fashion, is the increasing number of non-licensed and tag-on promotion of fashion products, using the ‘Barbie-core’ descriptor to sell garmens and accessories to consumers in all market segments. The volume of pink and pastel garments that have been spotlighted by brands, from fast fashion right through to ostensibly more sustainable, slow fashion, speaks to the current Barbie/Mattel zeitgeist,” she says. “This is concerning from a sustainability perspective, as it may encourage a form of limited-use consumption that’s diametrically opposed to the idea of consuming fashion in a meaningful way.”
For those wondering if they need a heart-shaped handbag, McNeill suggests shopping for merch as you would any other fashion item — with care and consideration. “Choosing things that you will love and look after in the long term is one option, shopping second-hand is another. Thinking carefully about why we love some items and why we fall out of love with other items or dispose of them quickly is also useful.”
One of the most popular fashion collaborators in New Zealand, Karen Walker, ensures her projects create something more significant than the sum of their parts. Whether the team is working with Disney to celebrate Mickey and Minnie’s 90th birthdays or with Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tāmaki to celebrate Frances Hodgkins’ sesquicentenary, a lot of thought goes into each limited-edition collection. “We aim for a 1+1=3 equation with all our projects and usually seek from our partners an expertise in their field that we can combine with our style to create something unique,” says the designer. “They’re always fun and exciting, and also serve a real purpose in our customers’ lives.”
As an extension of this, the Playpark brands stocked at Karen Walker stores help serve customer needs. “We’re not going to be making sneakers, for instance, [so] we’ll work with Adidas, New Balance, Converse and Veja for their expertise in this area.” It also provides a space to show shoppers how to style their Karen Walker purchases with brands whose values align with them.
As more businesses outside of the industry create their own mini-collections too, merchandise is becoming an increasingly fashionable way to support local businesses. It’s also a chance to experiment with your style with garments at a typically lower price point. In Aotearoa, niche merch drops are currently coming in the form of organic and natural wine store Everyday Wine’s ‘Bunch of Grapes’ bucket hat, coffee roasters Allpress x Goodlids’ hats, oat milk brand Boring x Buddy’s long-sleeved green tee, and restaurants Ockhee x Swings graphic prints. All of these use eye-catching colourways, and subtle branding, that can compete with any run-of-the-mill hat or top. Hard Rock Cafe drop this is not.