A flashback to a time when graphic tees were controversial.
Over the weekend in Berlin, the provocative clubwear brand Namilia debuted a graphic top for the semaglutide era. A model walked the runway looking like a paparazzi-hounded hungover “It” girl in a white tank that read: “I heart Ozempic.” The top was styled with a pink, embroidered trucker hat, a stringy lace skirt, and a shopping bag covered with decals that read “Too Pretty for Rehab” and “Fame Kills.”
Namilia’s latest collection, dubbed Good Girl Gone Bad, was an homage to grungy, fame-hungry early-2000s style, which continues to influence trends despite (or because of) its legacy of body-shaming and exclusion. (I’m sure that Ozempic, the diabetes medication that has become popular for rapid weight loss, would have been an off-label hit back then, too, given the era’s tabloid obsession with superthin stars like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.)
If Namilia was trying to be satirical, it seems like the internet wasn’t ready. The reaction online was pretty negative, given that Ozempic’s popularity has led to shortages. “This would’ve hit the way you intended if it was on a plus-size person,” said one commenter. “This brand has become way too influential in the past couple of years to be spreading such low, superficial, capitalistic, and toxic values,” wrote another. One defender added: “I seriously don’t understand why everyone is so furious about the Ozempic thing, like it’s very clearly a joke that plays on Hollywood and celebrity status, it’s very clearly meta-commentary.”
For their collection, Namilia’s designers, Nan Li and Emilia Pfohl, collaborated with tattoo-sleeve icon Ed Hardy. They turned archival and vintage Ed Hardy pieces into handmade, “couture” pieces, including embroidered leather miniskirts, denim corsets, and cropped moto jackets.
“Being famous, with all its glamour and destruction, can feel so attainable nowadays,” the brand wrote on Instagram. “Namilia asks why pop culture pushes us to our breaking points for recognition, attention and some kind of belonging?”
