About
Sexy Sweaters is a single topic blog and photoshop meme that involves masking a basic sweatshirt template with unconventional or eye-catching graphic patterns.
Origin
The original photoshopped sweaters were created by New York City design student Alex Gibson (Tumblr handle: BadSmellingBoy) on February 16th, 2011. Gibson initially posted fifteen different images on both sweaters and tee shirts and experimented with several different base images.
Spread
In the following months, other Tumblr users began photoshopping images on to basic sweatshirt bases including r-g[12], capillaryveins[13] and drug-money.[1] Drug-money, also known as Alec, began by posting seven sweaters on October 13th, 2011. These were the inspiration for the single-topic blog Sexy Sweaters[2], initially run by Alec and his friend Greta.[3] As of July 2012, Greta chose to leave the site, with another of Alec’s friends Dylan Bird[22] taking her place. Meanwhile, Alex Gibson’s original designs were featured in print magazines I Like My Style[14] and Husk[15] in October 2011. They were also featured on culture blog Electronic Beats[16] in November 2011.
After model Coco Rocha[18] posted an edited version of Sexy Sweaters’ Chewbacca sweater[19] with herself added in on October 27th, MTV Style[5] featured Sexy Sweaters on their blog. On November 1st, Alec and Greta made a Facebook[10] fan page for their site, receiving 4600 likes in 15 days. The site also received mentions from the Chive[8] on November 3rd, and art & design blog Complex[9] on the 4th. In December 2011, Vice Magazine posted an interview article with the bloggers Alex Gibson and Alec Weit.
Notable Examples
Derivative Blogs
Sexy Sweaters eventually went onto inspire several derivative “fantasy fashion” blogs, some of the most notable examples being Sexier Sweaters[4], Sexy Comic Sweaters[17] We Have Cardigans[6] and Dresses You Can Never Have.[20]
Where to Buy
On June 24th, 2012, the Sexy Sweaters bloggers launched the online shopping site Sexy Store[23] to meet the growing demand on the Internet. Additional custom collections of full-color graphic sweaters can be also found on Shop Jeen[26], SVPPLY[24] and Weebly.[25]
Search Interest
Since “sexy sweaters” is a common phrase, there is consistent search peaks in the fall and winter months annually, however, there is a huge spike between October and November 2011.
External References
[1]tumblr – drug-money
[2]tumblr – Sexy Sweaters
[3]tumblr – h-o-s-t-i-l-e-h-o-s-p-i-t-a-l
[4]tumblr – Sexier Sweaters
[5]MTV Style – Coco Rocha And Chewbacca Photoshopped Together On A Sweater, Plus More Sweaters We Wish Existed
[6]Tumblr – We Have Cardigans
[8]The Chive – Sexy sweaters. Admit it, you’d buy these in a heartbeat
[9]Complex – Look At This! Sweater Collection Designed in Photoshop
[10]Facebook – Sexy Sweaters
[11]Tumblr – BadSmellingBoy
[12]Tumblr – r-g, July 3rd, 2011
[13]Tumblr = capillaryveins
[14]Bad Smelling Boy – I Like My Style magazine scan
[15]Bad Smelling Boy – Husk magazine scan
[16]Electronic Beats – Fake tumblr sweaters & the men who love them
[17]Tumblr – Sexy (Comic) Sweaters
[18]Tumblr – Oh So Coco
[19]Tumblr – Sexy Sweaters | Chewbacca
[20]Tumblr – Dresses You Can Never Have
[21]Vice – Sexy Sweaters / Fantasy Sweatshirts
[22]Facebook – Dylan Bird
[23]Tumblr – Sexy Store
[24]SVPPLY– Sexy Sweaters
[25]Weebly – Sexy Sweaters
[26]Shop Jeen – Sexy Sweaters