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As the time came for stylist-to-the-stars Karla Welch to pick a face for her T-shirt collaboration with high street brand Hanes, it could only ever have been Justin Bieber. After all, the Love Yourself singer was the catalyst for the Hanes x Karla line of seven classic white tees in the first place.
Legend goes Welch, who styled the Bieber for his Believe Tour in 2012, approached the cut-price basics brand back then to custom-make white shirts for the star, given she couldn’t find baller-style white tees that were long enough for his taste but still narrow enough to fit.
Bieber (partially) wears the Original style in the campaign shot by Karla Welch’s husband Credit: Instagram @karlawelchstylist, Matthew Welch (photographer)
Twigging that it was onto a good thing, the brand agreed to let Welch tweak its bargain basement line of T-shirts, which currently sell for between $7 and $10 Australian dollars on the Hanes website, then sell the co-branded result on her own website.
The seven new styles of tee – in original, sleeveless, cropped, crew, classic, sleeveless cropped and baby cuts – are only available (for now) at several pop-up stores in America and online at XKarla. Any one of them could easily be the most worn piece of clothing you own all summer.
Joan Smalls wears the Sleeveless Crop style Credit: Matthew Welch via Instagram @karlawelchstylist
Along with the shape, Welch has adapted the price too: each is listed for US$30, or almost $40 Australian post-conversion, a 300 percent markup on the Hanes originals. (We see you, celeb-factor inflation). Still, it’s a far cry from the hefty price tag other singer-slash-designers like Kanye and Rihanna have added to their own basic T-shirt offerings in recent past.
Supermodels Joan Smalls and Kaia Gerber – chosen because they also encapsulate the youth-centric, street cool vibe Welch injected into the range – join Bieber in the black and white campaign, shot by the stylist’s photographer husband Matthew Welch.
Kaia Gerber, whose mother Cindy Crawford has worked with Welch in the past, wears the Crop Credit: Matthew Welch via Instagram @karlawelchstylist
“Karla and I have always pushed boundaries together and this collaboration is a continuation of that,” Bieber has said of endorsing wares for Welch, who’s switched from being his fashion advisor to a close friend. Rumour is a second range will drop in October. Whether or not Bieber appears partially bare-chested in its ad campaign again remains to be seen.
