The first ‘merch’, as we know it today, is thought to have been made for fans of Elvis Presley. Colonel Parker, Elvis’s talent manager, signed a deal in July 1956 for a company to produce everything from T-shirts to sneakers and belts, all emblazoned with the rockn’roller. By December of the same year, the range…
Fonts, like most aesthetic things, go through trend cycles. But in recent years it has seemed that serifs – the twiddly bits on the edges of letters – had become a thing of the past. The only fonts we paid any attention to were twiddly bit-free, straight-edged, or sans-serif. See the striking Futura originally taken…
Any parent will likely be familiar with soft toys – the often-loveworn collection of teddies, bunnies and lambies that often litter the bedroom of under-fives. But these adorable creatures are – in the manner of Toy Story, perhaps – escaping from their usual territory among ‘kid’s stuff’ and coming for the grown-ups. Soft toys are becoming…
Think of a city worker and you’ll likely think of a smart striped shirt worn with a tie and one of those ubiquitous Succession-adjacent gilets. But, in 2024, the signals are switching, or glitching. Enter ‘Finance Bro’, the look — some of the above garms taken up by the fashion-conscious, creative classes to cosplay someone…
Released at the start of June, Charli XCX’s Brat can be said to be responsible for many things this summer: its song – a toss up between 360 or Everything is Romantic, according to TikTok. Its hot mess dress code – “a strappy white top with no bra”, as decreed by Charli herself. And –…