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What do Big Sean and your Nan have in common? An affiliation for Eminem’s new apparently-cancellable album? Mutual respect for Ariana Grande? Maybe. The more likely answer is a fondness for the late, great Princess Diana.
This week, the 36-year-old rapper suited up for a performance in LA to promote his new album “Better You Than Me,” wearing an ode to the late royal. The hoodie — boxy fit, sans drawstring — borrows from the typical ironic merch-ification aesthetic: overdone generic fonts, doe-eyed portraits and some form of bedazzling.
Big Sean’s version is from LA-based post-punk label Siberia Hills, which was founded in 2017 by Parsons School of Design dropout Daf Orlovsky. The label's graphic-heavy approach borrows from anime, mutant animals, aliens — as well as beloved royalty — and earned a big cosigns from Billie Eilish. This actual hoodie is not currently for sale, although you could probably cop a similar version from any good British souvenir shop or overly emotional Etsy royalist. Featuring semi-embellished rhinestoning and the slogan ‘Royal Blood,’ Anderson paired his version with a plain black bomber jacket, a loose-fitting black trouser and a pair of lace-up loafers by Prada (the Diapason style, £890, for those in the market).
It shouldn’t surprise anyone Anderson opted for Lady Di merch. Anderson isn’t the only celebrity, or rapper, to do so. In fact, he probably isn’t the only celebrity to do it this week. Rihanna, patron saint of esoteric graphic T-shirts, has been seen wearing Diana merch more than once, most famously in 2016.
Meanwhile, other more classic menswear faces of the Harry Styles variety have chosen to execute their homages in more abstract fashion.
The enduring appeal of Princess Diana — not only her style, but her status as a symbol — has been well etched into the fashion lexicon. On top of famous guys emulating her style in their own, references to her symbolism and wardrobe are everywhere through collections, from Virgil Abloh’s Off-White spring/summer 2018 to Jacquemus’ autumn/winter 2023. The font of such global adoration is anyone's guess. Whether because her untimely death and subsequent martyrdom in the public eye, or her status as the black sheep (which, again, earned a nod in Styles' knitwear) of the royal family, her appeal both in culture and in style is eternal. Just look to the four Diana-themed movies that came out in 2021. Or, maybe, there was just something in that slightly oddball style that was ahead of its time.
“Her best looks read like a mood board of the past five years in fashion,” wrote Rachel Tashjian of her influence in 2019. “The outfits are so precise, so cool, and occasionally so bizarre that they tell us more about her — her sense of daring and her egalitarian approach to getting dressed — than any official royal portrait could.”
