The luxury brand GUCCI is selling an “oversize T-shirt” with the Paramount logo for $590 on its website, as well as at Nordstrom JWN, +13.20% and other retailers. The shirt is one of several products featuring the Paramount logo. Gucci is also selling a $6,000 leather bomber jacket and a $2,700 sweatshirt that says “Paramount, a Viacom Company” on the back, with a reprint of the famous snow-covered Paramount mountain. Experts say it’s a bid for the classic Americana fashion brigade.
It may seem like an odd pairing. But the Paramount logo, so well known from countless movies since the Hollywood studio’s founding in 1912, gives a retro feel to Gucci’s line, said Ira Mayer, a co-director of the Institute of Branding & Licensing at the LIU Post, a private college in Brookville, N.Y. “The brand is hot right now, and clearly they are trying to prolong that renewed success,” he said. “Why Paramount? It’s a classic, instantly identifiable and timeless logo that shouts Hollywood cool.’
The high-ticket items come as America’s chief executive officers make more than 300 times as much as the average worker. The shopping habits of the 1% have been a point of fascination for the middle class, with the news that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has been charged with falsifying tax returns, bank fraud conspiracy and failing to file foreign bank account reports, had previously purchased a $15,000 ostrich leather jacket.
The 1%, who collectively held 82% of the world’s wealth last year, have the money to spend on such exotic extravagances. Paramount isn’t the only company Gucci has partnered with this season: The fashion brand is selling a $3,000 silk jacket with the trademarked New York Yankees logo on it. There may be a built-in, well-heeled audience for the Paramount/Gucci crossover T-shirt. “The shirts will no doubt make a few Paramount execs very happy this coming holiday season,” Mayer said.
