The Style Evolution of Movie Merch

The relationship between film and fashion is changing. Fast. While the history is marked by culture-defining moments such as Diane Keaton’s smart ensembles designed by Ralph Lauren for Woody Allen’s Annie Hall or Buggin Out’s smudged Air Jordan 4s in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, today, film studios and fashion labels are working in tandem to create clothing that’s an unabashed celebration of the movies. 

Perhaps the best example comes from beloved indie film company A24, known for flicks such as Uncut Gems, Hereditary and Minari. The studio’s ongoing creative partnership with the tie-dye-loving duo behind Online Ceramics, Alix Ross and Elijah Funk, in particular, has spurred a string of limited edition product that serves as both homage to A24’s cinematic output and standalone style statement. 

According to Ross and Funk, the venture started as a lark; they made unofficial merch for cult flick Hereditary before they even saw it. As longtime horror movie fans, they had a hunch Ari Aster’s feature film directorial debut would be a huge hit. When Will Welch, editor-in-chief of GQ, connected them directly with the studio, the bootleg merch spawned an official partnership.  

Like Ross and Funk’s own designs for Online Ceramics, the brand’s collaborative A24 tees (created for movies including The Witch, Saint Maud, The Lighthouse and Midsommar, among others) have garnered a cult following of stylish cinephiles. They’re filled with cryptic messages and screen-printed designs chock full of insidery references to the film; overlaid with Online Ceramics’ signature technicolor swirls. Released in small quantities, they almost always sell out, resurfacing on the resale market at a significant markup.

The partnership is niche in a world where mainstream popularity is generally thought of as suspicious. It’s not some branding initiative puppeteered by marketers and algorithms. It’s something more pure: two genuinely creative entities linking up because they share a mutual passion. When you wear a tee produced by an independent film company and an under-the-radar brand, it’s the 2021 way of declaring your own discerning taste: you’re less Marvel, more Malick; less Madewell, more Margiela. 

These sorts of alliances can feel transactional today, but it’s easy to see the mutual benefits at play here. Working with Online Ceramics gives the rest of A24’s other branded merch an instant lift, a co-sign from a cult brand worn by fashion editors, artists and celebrities. At the same time, Online Ceramics gets to expand its purview as a brand; while it’s made its connections to music explicit, specifically with its ongoing homages to the Grateful Dead, now, with its ongoing partnership with A24, it’s able to expand its reputation and raise its profile within the world of arthouse cinema. 

This collaboration, for all its originality and purpose, has a precedent in the luxury market, most notably with Jun Takahashi’s UNDERCOVER and Raf Simons’ eponymous line. Takahashi has used his seasonal offerings to plumb the horror genre, building collections around Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange. More recently, Takahashi used haunting images from Luca Guadagnino’s remake of the Italian film Suspiria, about a prestigious ballet school run by witches. Raf Simons’ love of David Lynch is no secret, tapping film stills from Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart to infuse his collections with the same feeling of surreal dread that the auteur filmmaker is known for. 

But the connection between A24 and Online Ceramics is something different. They’ve each carved out reputations that meld widespread popularity with cultish cool. There’s a real appreciation of one another at play, a certain freedom that feels spontaneous and easy, not like it's gone through the approval of corporate lawyers. These T-shirts, with their weird energy, are all the things 2020 wasn’t: a celebration of movie magic and the joys of personal style. As the world opens back up, little things remind us of the pleasures this milieu provides: getting lost in a different world in the air-conditioned chill of a theater, rubbing elbows with fellow movie-lovers and the distinct thrill of slipping on a very good T-shirt.