Wearing Bieber Merch to Dine With the Biebers: Cool or Cringe?
Is it gauche to wear a celebrity's merch to hang out with the celebrity? As a non-famous shmuck, I can't say I've ever had to consider the context but Anastasia "Stassie" Karanikolaou and boyfriend Jaden Hossler prompted it when they headed out with Justin and Hailey Bieber in late October.
Now, if you aren't familiar with Stassie and Hossler, join the club. The former is a close friend of Kylie Jenner, who is herself tight with Hailey and the latter is some kind of "internet personality," Google tells me, and he recently released a song that references Chrome Hearts and has a half-million plays on YouTube.
It was Hossler who elected to wear Drew House gear to meet up with the Biebers, which is what brings us to the question of the day: is it cool or cringe to wear Bieber merch to dine with the Biebers?
Now, it's muddy because Justin doesn't own Drew House but he did help found it with longtime pal Ryan Good and he's rarely seen not wearing its baggy jeans and smiley-face pullovers.
Wearing Drew to eat dinner with Justin is not the same thing as, say, wearing Justin Bieber tour merch to eat dinner with Justin Bieber but we're talking about similar wheelhouses here.
I don't have a definitive answer, either way, besides that we need more context.
Maybe Hossler got his Drew sweater for free, courtesy of the big dog. Or perhaps he picked it up specifically for this meet-up, like "Hey, dude, happy to support!"
Nothing awkward there but, then again, even if it wasn't an unprompted Drew flex, is it a faux pas to bring business to the table?
But, also, it's not like Drake's friends mind wearing his NOCTA gear, so who am I to judge. I will say that actual Bieber merch would almost certainly be one toke over the line though, right?
It's certainly the most interesting part of Hossler and Stassie's outfits, otherwise ordinary Gen Z looks that are entirely outpaced by the impressively complementary couples outfits that Justin and Hailey wore.
Well, better than nothing, I suppose.
