Why Guy Fieri’s Flame Shirt Is Having A Fashion Moment

Flame shirts are a special brand of sleaze. Unlike the gross-appealing machismo that comes with classics like open tops, mobster pinky rings, or pencil-thin mustaches, flame shirts may be the least sexy clothes in existence. Senior VogueMarket Editor Kirby Marzec connects them to “that weird heavy-metal-meets-grunge-mall-rat guy with the awful pointy beard, gelled spiky hair, and is totally drinking a Monster Energy drink.” Eek. But Marzec isn’t so far off from how society views the flame shirt. It recalls a specific noughties-era type of a man: a hint of Smash Mouth, a drizzle of chin strap, and, of course, one large keg of peroxide bleach (for those gelled tips). But the best seared-in-the-brain example of the unforgettable look is Guy Fieri. Though he often wears a standard bowling shirt on top of a white tee, the donkey sauce–chugging TV personality and restaurateur was immortalized in a meme-ified image of himself in the campy flame shirt. (Saturday Night Live dedicated an unaired sketch to Fieri and his flame shirt back in 2012). Fun fact: Fieri reportedly disliked the flame shirt he became so synonymous with. Read more at Vogue.