When it comes to memes, Gen Z isn’t afraid to take risks and push boundaries. From a lolcat to a distracted boyfriend or dancing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, they’re willing to see what sticks. And this mentality has led to the rise of “meme fashion” — the trend of wearing clothes that are off-beat, weird, or just plain silly.
The shirt cut meme is one such example. It first came out in June 2021 and quickly went viral. Essentially, it’s a template that asks people to design their own filthy avatars with five different labels (inner sideboob, boob window, underboob, and free space). You can draw whatever you want in the blank spaces, but most stick to the provocative theme.
For the unfamiliar, this is a pretty common type of meme that can be found on sites like Twitter and TikTok. It usually features a picture with a text label above it, and it’s commonly used in reaction images to other posts or videos.
It’s also become a popular way for brands to promote their clothing, with some even creating specific accounts that use the shirt-cut meme. But there’s more to this fashion-meme phenomenon than meets the eye, and it reveals something about the nature of fashion, business, and what it means to be a generation raised on the Internet.