"No Problem": What Gen Z Really Says With Their T-Shirts
Despite all kinds of global disasters facing young people, Gen Z's favorite streetwear style expresses pure ease. Clothes emblazoned with the phrase "no problem" are everywhere, from Zendaya's tortured Euphoria character to Portia, the pathologically deranged assistant from White Lotus' second series. In real life, Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and Bones and All actor Taylor Russell have been spotted wearing them. And the 'no problemo' tee has become a de facto uniform for creative workers across the UK. They're the work of Aries, a London-based skate brand founded in 2009 that quickly gained cult status thanks to its tongue-in-cheek and cleverly designed slogan clothing.
Slogan tees in general are back with a vengeance, loved by Gen Z for their mix of social media-ready irony and seriousness - and brands that communicate esoteric, ultra-specific moods are at fashion.
For the top celebrities, a T-shirt will do a job that usually requires press releases, Instagram captions, and interviews. On the day of her latest album's release, British pop star Charli XCX wore a t-shirt that read 'They don't build statues of critics'. When she walked into a Brits afterparty empty-handed earlier this month, her shirt announced she was a 'real winner'. Shortly after the New York magazine published its dive into the world of Hollywood's "nepo babies," Hailey Bieber, daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, wore a top that simply read "nepo baby." Olivia Rodrigo is "God's favorite", while Julia Fox, who rose to fame after briefly dating Kanye West, is a "starfucker". Instagram feeds of fashionable 20-somethings are also filled with "God's favorite" handbags and "father, son, holy spirit" bikinis, both from American streetwear brand Praying.
Shirts run the gamut from the inscrutable - a "Men in Music Conference" t-shirt by Los Angeles-based Hollywood Gifts will only make sense to die-hard Lana Del Rey fans - broad-based and brazenly transgressive, like the "fag" sweatshirt sold by Boycrazy, a Los Angeles label that "celebrates homosexuality".
Despite all kinds of global disasters facing young people, Gen Z's favorite streetwear style expresses pure ease. Clothes emblazoned with the phrase "no problem" are everywhere, from Zendaya's tortured Euphoria character to Portia, the pathologically deranged assistant from White Lotus' second series. In real life, Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and Bones and All actor Taylor Russell have been spotted wearing them. And the 'no problemo' tee has become a de facto uniform for creative workers across the UK. They're the work of Aries, a London-based skate brand founded in 2009 that quickly gained cult status thanks to its tongue-in-cheek and cleverly designed slogan clothing.
Slogan tees in general are back with a vengeance, loved by Gen Z for their mix of social media-ready irony and seriousness - and brands that communicate esoteric, ultra-specific moods are at fashion.
For the top celebrities, a T-shirt will do a job that usually requires press releases, Instagram captions, and interviews. On the day of her latest album's release, British pop star Charli XCX wore a t-shirt that read 'They don't build statues of critics'. When she walked into a Brits afterparty empty-handed earlier this month, her shirt announced she was a 'real winner'. Shortly after the New York magazine published its dive into the world of Hollywood's "nepo babies," Hailey Bieber, daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, wore a top that simply read "nepo baby." Olivia Rodrigo is "God's favorite", while Julia Fox, who rose to fame after briefly dating Kanye West, is a "starfucker". Instagram feeds of fashionable 20-somethings are also filled with "God's favorite" handbags and "father, son, holy spirit" bikinis, both from American streetwear brand Praying.
Shirts run the gamut from the inscrutable - a "Men in Music Conference" t-shirt by Los Angeles-based Hollywood Gifts will only make sense to die-hard Lana Del Rey fans - broad-based and brazenly transgressive, like the "fag" sweatshirt sold by Boycrazy, a Los Angeles label that "celebrates homosexuality".
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