When Timothée Chalamet kicked off his press tour of Marty Supreme wearing the sort of windbreaker last seen on a cross-channel ferry in 1992, it didn’t immediately seem like a major style win. But times, as he sang in his Bob Dylan biopic, are a-changing.
It has become a viral hit – just as Jonathan Anderson’s I Told Ya slogan T-shirt for Challengers gained cult status (sold by Loewe for £495) in 2024.
The jacket is part of a collection (there are also caps, polo shirts and tracksuits) produced by Doni Nahmias’s LA streetwear brand in collaboration with Chalamet’s long-time stylist Taylor McNeill and A24, the production company behind the movie. McNeill has form creating fashion heat, with a penchant for polarising, attention-securing looks. She revamped Brad Pitt in louche silk shirts for his F1 promo-spree; and also works with Robert Pattinson, Daniel Craig and the singer Lorde.
In a meticulous marketing move months prior to the film’s release, the jacket was doing heavy promotional lifting with celebrity hints dropped across social media. Chalamet’s girlfriend Kylie Jenner wore one; as did her sister, the supermodel Kendall Jenner. Quarterback Tom Brady, left, rapper Kid Cudi, former swimer Michael Phelps and Ringo Starr have all worn the $250 windbreaker, bestowed with the piece by Chalamet anointing them as being “truly great”.
Tom Brady wears the Marty Supreme jacket
Anoraks are, however, having something of a fashion moment, in the last year Prada, Miu Miu, Hermès and Louis Vuitton have all included the piece on their catwalks. Casual classics Berghaus (which reissued its 90s Trango jacket) and Napapirji (a collaboration with Martine Rose rebirthed its Skidoo anorak) have regained kudos. In September, Charli XCX, Hailey Bieber and Zoë Kravitz wore windbreakers on the front row of the Saint Laurent show, albeit paired with lace-edged silk shorts and slip dresses.
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Cult movie sportswear has form, too. No gen X-er could possibly wear a grey tracksuit without quoting Rocky Balboa; while the red Adidas tracksuit, worn by Ben Stiller and his sons in The Royal Tenenbaums, has been endlessly referenced. It is currently on display in the Design Museum’s Wes Anderson: The Archives exhibition, alongside the Fendi fur coat worn by Gwyneth Paltrow to similar raptures as Margot Tenenbaum.
Ever since Margot Robbie dressed up like a doll for her internet breaking Barbie press tour (aped by fans at screenings) actors have studiously worked with their stylists to showcase their projects via finely tuned promotional outfits. This method-dressing movement has become critical to cutting-through miniscule-attention spans in a swamped media landscape.
But Chalamet’s jacket isn’t something his character wears in the film. His portrayal of Marty was conjured up by costume designer Miyako Bellizzi. She meticulously sourced vintage 1940s and early 1950s suiting for the period piece, which has given ping pong its biggest exposure since Forrest Gump left the army.
In that vein, Chalamet should be rocking up to his interviews in nerdy knits, wide-leg slacks and ties. Instead, an entirely new, cohesive style identity has been created purely to promote the project, which happily skirts the fashion zeitgeist.
Chalamet, who recently appeared in an EsDeeKid video after fuelling rumours that he was the Liverpudlian musician in disguise, has done what any nerdy arts kid would do to look cool: hung out with rappers and wore sportswear.
The fan-fuel is that the limited edition collection has only been available to buy at three pop-ups, in LA, New York and London in early December. The drops were publicised a day earlier on social media, leading to fans queueing overnight. Predictably, the jacket is available for upwards of £1,000 on eBay; the coveted blue colour-way is listed on StockX for £10,000.
Susan Boyle in Marty Supreme jacket gifted by Timothee Chalamet
Having cited singer Susan Boyle as one of his greatest Brits in an interview with the BBC, he not only played into the hands of a public taken with off-kilter celebrity shoutouts, but displayed his keen understanding of internet culture. Boyle he explained, referencing her Britain’s Got Talent audition “dreamed bigger than all of us. Who wasn’t moved by that. I remember it like it was yesterday, it was the advent of YouTube.”
Days later, Boyle sang happy birthday to the 30-year-old actor, wearing a Marty Supreme jacket, broadcast on both her and the film’s social media accounts.
But while the piece has whipped up instant viral appeal, and cemented the movie in the minds of the public, its position as a design classic seems less assured. Johanna Agerman Ross, chief curator at the Design Museum, says: “It might have similar traction in terms of the moment it creates, but how that moment has been constructed is very different from other films where the costumes of the film set a tendency for, or interest in, a particular fashion or style. In that sense, it is bound to be a more short-lived phenomenon than the impact of costumes from a film. After all, it is the film we tend to revisit, not the marketing materials associated with it.”
Although for those that have seen the movie, it is the wide, pleated, flat-front trousers paired with a 40s white vest and shirt which fans are also falling for. Find yours at Uniqlo for £39.90.
Photographs by Ishika Samant/Getty Images, tombrady/Instagram, A24/Instagram