Graphics such as the Rolling Stone’s tongue and lips logo and Guns N’ Roses’ revolver motif are some of the most recognisable band T-shirt’s to date. But, with the popularisation of streaming services such as Netflix and Prime Video, TV shows have become the unlikely competitor, offering an acceptable and fashionable display of telly fandom.

A Bazinga Big Bang Theory T-shirt from Amazon. Photograph: PR

With the third instalment to Netflix’s ultra-successful Stranger Things released on 4th July, clothing brands have latched on to the show’s fanbase. Following May’s H&M x Stranger Things collection, Levi’s released its own collaboration on 1 July, along with Nike, whose latest Stranger Things rollout arrived the same day, joining Topshop and Pull&Bear who had previously partnered with the supernatural show.

Elsewhere, the popular crime-drama, Narcos, which began as an adaptation of the story of notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar before moving on to cover rival cartels and the Mexican drug trade, has seen the character of Pacho’ Herrera become the inspiration for a custom site of signature retro designs.

Other TV shows have prompted T-shirts emblazoned with popular catchphrases, such as “Bazinga!” from The Big Bang Theory, while Asos has retained its selection of Games of Thrones and Friends T-shirts, despite all three series coming to an end.

“The force of social media and the concept of a ‘bio’ means that we’re constantly being made to define ourselves and, while brand logos display our brand loyalty, scenes from TV shows say slightly more about who we are and the type of content we identify with,” says the fashion psychologist Shakaila Forbes-Bell. “It’s another easy way to say: ‘This is who I am and what I like.’”

The one with the T-shirt: Friends at Asos. Photograph: PR

Forbes-Bell suggests aligning oneself with a TV viewing community is part of the evolutionary desire to form and belong to groups.

“Wearing a Game of Thrones T-shirt, for example, can also be seen as a type of signalling behaviour. It almost acts like a beacon to fellow Thronies; the T-shirt with a scene from the show is the uniform of the group, strengthening the relationship between fellow fans,” she says.

The band T-shirt once had the same powerful ability to consciously reveal a core part of someone’s identity. However, the shift from music graphics to TV shows is indicative of the new ways in which we are now consuming media.

“I feel like music doesn’t have the longevity it used to,” she says. “That anticipation for an album to drop and then queuing up to buy the CD, pulling the band poster from a magazine and sticking it on your wall has all been lost. We have more access to musicians via social media, which humanises them, making them less revered, whereas TV shows invite more discourse over a longer period (several seasons long), discourse which is often politicised. They can polarise the public and entice strong emotions from viewers.”

One thing that music and TV do still have in common is their ability to inspire die-hard fanbases and key cultural references. But when Friends’ Ross Geller wore a Frankie Goes to Hollywood T-shirt in 1997, who could have known that the character would inspire his own fan tees (often emblazoned with the word “unagi”) some 22 years later?



