I got that hamster in me shirt

Product Description

I was super I got that hamster in me shirt excited to shop for wedding dresses,” said Kaylee Slagus, a plus-sized content creator who got married in 2022. Slagus also trawled Pinterest for inspiration, but only saw “smaller” bodies. Buying plus-size clothing is generally frustrating – there’s little variety, it sometimes costs more than straight-sized clothing, and plus-size items often don’t fit my body the way I like. To make it even more confusing, bridal salons use their own sizing. We all complain about vanity sizing when it comes to buying regular clothes, but bridal sizing goes in the opposite direction: a bridal 10 is roughly a street 6, although there’s no real industry standard. A 2019 study by the Knot found that 50% of brides who were a size 12 or higher were self-conscious about the dress shopping process – twice the proportion of brides under a size 12 who felt anxious about it. Despite all this, I was determined to have a good experience. Having been in several weddings as a bridesmaid, maid of honor or guest, I was prepared. I emailed several stores before making appointments to ask if they even had samples of gowns big enough for me to try. Still, after five appointments at various salons around New York City and Long Island, the whole thing left me wondering how – in 2024 – the bridal industry can still be so anti-fat.

I got that hamster in me shirt, hoodie, sweater, longsleeve and ladies t-shirt

Unisex tshirt

Women’s tshirt

Longsleeve tshirt

Sweaters

Hoodies

It’s a style that’s I got that hamster in me shirt American as apple pie – so why is it making a comeback the world over? The varsity jacket is “an odd bird in the world in fashion” for the way it has stayed so present in style trends over the past century even as it’s “retained its original meaning,” says Deirdre Clemente, historian and curator of 20th-century American material culture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The story of the varsity jacket is, she says, inherently a story about technology. The garment has its origins in the “letterman” sweater – a knitted jumper featuring an initial taken from a school that was made with new kinds of knitting machines that could make items very fast. Originally only given to elite sportsmen at Ivy League colleges in the late-1800s and early-1900s, “it really began as an elite marker of sportsmanship,” Clemente says. By the 1940s, the jacket had replaced the sweater and it began to crop up on high-school campuses. By the 50s and 60s, new manufacturing technology meant that a variety of business could produce varsity jackets; high-street fashion brands realised that “we can just make these things, they don’t have to have any cultural meanings,” says Clemente. By the 60s and 70s, the letterman had “become a retro fashion statement”, and, in the 80s, alongside the rise of sportswear, companies began to make jackets that alluded to varsity style but featured random images and patches. “Starting about mid-century, as individualism in fashion comes to the fore, people started to use the jacket ironically,” says Clemente. “[People would] wear it with dirty jeans – it wasn’t part of distinguishing who you are as an extra special athlete, it was more a way of distinguishing a style.”