By Fawnia Soo Hoo
A year and a half ago, Nat, who runs No Context the Pitt on Instagram, was gifted an Etsy-bought bootleg T-shirt emblazoned with late-‘90s pics of Noah Wyle’s iconic ER character, John Carter.
“It was a gag gift, but I don’t think [my friend] realized how seen and heard I felt by it,” says the Midwest-based part-time PA and nanny. “The shirt is a good way to start conversations with people, who always react to it.”
These irreverent, ‘90s-referential tees are popular with television fans and celebrities alike. In 2023, Kim Kardashian posted a TikTok in a tee picturing little sister Kendall Jenner and five NBA players alleged to be ex-boyfriends. At the 2024 Indie Spirit Awards, host Aidy Bryant did a bit with Charles Melton’s face all over her shirt, with the May December actor returning the favor. (Inspired, I immediately copped my own shirt with Melton’s face.) And RIP to the Internet that same February, when Morgan Spector — who plays robber baron/wife guy George Russell on The Gilded Age — posted a thirst-trap gym selfie in a bootleg tee of Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon).
“Some people call them ‘rap shirts,’ some people call them ‘meme shirts,’” says Andy Sargeant, the nom de guerre for the creative professional who designed Spector’s (in)famous shirt for his Etsy store, TheColormart. “It’s a ‘90s throwback in a way, but that style of shirt is really popular [now] as a funny, ironic statement. Bertha Russell is the antithesis of what you would expect to see on that style of shirt.”
The recognizably retro design traces its origin back to ‘90s hip-hop album cover art and unlicensed iterations made by fans and indie vendors. Costume designer and vintage T-shirt collector Charlese Antoinette credits the genre-defining work of Pen and Pixel Graphics, a Houston-based design firm that specialized in album covers for Southern hip hop artists of the era — namely Cash Money Records (Big Tymers, Juvenile) and Master P’s No Limit Records.
“[The designs were] colorful, layered, and an explosion of imagery,” says Antoinette. It was really appealing, and really different from standard record-label marketing, where you get this polished photograph.”
Known as “The Original Kings of Bling,” Pen and Pixel created a singular aesthetic, blending bold, 3-D style lettering in lavish metallics; audacious artist imagery; and success signifiers, like diamond-encrusted watchfaces and high-end champagne. Turns out, there is a throughline to Bertha Russell, in her finest Parisian couture and extravagant jewels, gracing an off-brand tee today.
In memoriam, or RIP, T-shirts, which rose to prominence in the ‘80s and ‘90s, also helped shape the design and commemorative spirit of today’s bootleg tee. The grassroots, limited-edition shirts, rooted in hip-hop, street culture, and local print shops, honor lost loved ones with photos and custom tribute text. Following the deaths of The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac in the late ‘90s, friends, fans, and indie vendors made their own memorial shirts. “These shirts were never meant to be mass produced. They were a limited run for family and close friends,” says Antoinette.
Kelly Swainson, who runs NeonPersephone, one of the many Etsy shops selling The Gilded Age-themed tees, cites another sentimental ‘90s crossover: customizable airbrush T-shirt stations at malls and fairs. “I’m picturing, like dolphins and bubble letters with a very specific flavor recalling street art,” says Swainson. “It was a way to make tributes to things that are important to people, without being mass produced.”
With customizable options easily accessible on Etsy and other online shops, everyone can be their own bootleg vendor now.
The appeal of these shirts also highlight — or inspire — a special bond amongst like minds and common interests. “It feels like an ‘if you know you know’-type signifier,” says London-based costume designer Molly Emma Rowe, who treasures a T-shirt celebrating Mariska Hargitay and her longtime Law & Order: SVU hero, Detective Olivia Benson.
Rowe, who recently worked on updates of iconic ‘90s IP Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and Interview with the Vampire spin-off Talamasca, continues, “And, if you know, then you must be cool, too, and we will definitely have something in common to talk about — if you recognize or comment on my fan tee.”
For The Gilded Age cast members, participating in the T-shirt fun signals they’re a part of the fan community, too. Responding to her on-screen husband a few months later, Coon gleefully upped the ante with a George Russell-themed “Rail Daddy” tee during an Emmy-season sitdown. In a late-2024 interview, stage and screen legend Christine Baranski, who plays old money doyenne Agnes van Rhijn, mentioned a bootleg “Aunt Agnes” tee amplified by her tagline “heads will roll.” After season three concluded in August, Ben Ahlers, who plays footman and clock savant Jack, popped up on Instagram in that very shirt.
“It shows that [the actors are] in on it,” says culture writer and television critic Emma Fraser. “There is this real conversation, in a way, between actor and fan. There’s definitely that wink, wink.”
Swainson, who’s active in the show’s subreddit, immediately made her own “Aunt Agnes” shirt, and introduced one of intrepid journalist Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) after polling fellow members for requests. Around that time, Sergeant also noticed a spike in interest in his OG Bertha shirt, which has sold over 500 units to date. (A representative for HBO declined to comment.)
As a holiday gift for my long-distance freelance colleague Fraser, I blended a few of our in-jokes — Paul Mescal’s harrowing Hot Ones debut and many conversations about Hot Irish Guy Summer and the swoony cast of Masters of the Air — into one pretty excellent bootleg T-shirt, if I do say so myself.
“When I opened it, I was very, very happy because it’s an in-joke between us,” says Fraser. “Custom anything is wonderful, especially when it’s someone who knows you well. Wearing it out is fun because people obviously won’t get the joke, but they get it as a collection of hot guys.”
Like their forebears, today’s bootleg tees use unsanctioned imagery. But, thanks to technology, they’re now quickly churned out by indie vendors, largely on Etsy, with lightning speed. Sargeant harnesses his professional design skills and software. Canva, an easy-to-use, web-based drag-and-drop design platform that features AI, evens the playing field further. (Claret at Disaworld, the vendor who made Fraser’s shirt uses: “just Photoshop and a lot of tutorials, hehe,” per DM.)
“You don’t need an art degree to figure out how to make these shirts,” says Sargeant. “I would say the skill bar to do it is pretty low.”
Print-on-demand and drop-shipping platforms — like Printful, which has an Etsy integration — allow vendors to quickly fulfill one-offs and custom orders globally, without carrying inventory. Swainson even makes custom tees for herself via Printful.
Ironically, the low barrier to producing and selling the shirts has led to bootlegs of the bootlegs. “My Bertha Russell design has since been copied by like 1,000 different stores,” says Sargeant.
When finishing Air in 2022, Antoinette thoughtfully considered wrap gifts for Matt Damon and director Ben Affleck, producers and actors in the ‘80s-set film. The famous best friends would regale her with stories growing up in the era, and a childhood photobooth pic of the two made the rounds on-set.
“They’re really, really close friends, and it’s really sweet to see men have that lifelong friendship because a lot of men don’t,” says Antoinette. “I just really wanted to celebrate their friendship — and make them laugh.”
She designed a Pen & Pixel-esque tribute tee with “Day Ones” in block lettering under the adorable vintage pic. When the shoot wrapped, Antoinette and the crew, in “Day One” shirts, surprised Damon and Affleck.
“It had a little viral moment and then these bootleg t-shirt companies started bootlegging the shirt!” says Antoinette. “Every once in a while, I’ll see another one pop up, and I’ll contact them and get them to take it down.”