In her Wednesday Snapchat Story, Kylie Jenner did normal Kylie Jenner things – she played around with a face-contorting filter, she got her hair braided, and she hung out with friends. But if you blinked or couldn’t make out the backward letters on her shirt, you may have missed that in five snaps, she wore a black T-shirt with Selena’s face on it – the words “We Miss You” emblazoned across the top.
http://instagram.com/p/BCv7kbHsw3u/
In just a little over a year – nearly 13 months – Drake, Big Sean, and Kylie have all worn shirts honoring La Reina. In the world of fashion, they would call this a trend (three’s a trend), and while it’s unclear how much of this Selena-repping actually extends into genuine fandom and knowledge, there’s something to be said about how widely her legacy has spread in the 20 years since her untimely death.
First came Drake. In February 2015, he posted a picture of himself wearing an airbrushed Selena shirt, with 1971 -1995 printed on the collar in red letters.
New York-based Darien Bruze created the shirt in collaboration with Vince Osbourne, a Long Beach artist. The then 21-year-old worked at Target, and felt stuck. So he channeled his energy into creating and posted the images of his East Coast vs. West Coast line on Instagram. After VFiles and FourTwoFour on Fairfax picked up the dope pieces, so did Drake, according to MTV.
Bruze wanted to honor Selena and Aaliyah the only way he knew how – through design– so he told Drake.
“I sent him a DM of the Aaliyah and the Selena shirt,” Bruze told MTV. “He saw it and was like, ‘That’s dope. I need it.’ For some reason, it slipped through the cracks, and I get a message from him a few weeks later, and he was like, ‘Yo, where’s my Selena shirt? I want to wear it at the ESPY Awards.’ I was like, ‘My bad, I haven’t gotten around to it.’ I was in L.A. at the time, and he was in L.A. and I was like, ‘I’ll come give it to you.’ But he read my message late, so I didn’t get to give it to him. A couple months later, he’s like, ‘Where’s my Selena shirt?’ So, I finally sent it to him. When I sent it to him a few weeks ago, that’s when he wore it.”
Five months later, Big Sean showed his love for Selena on Billboard. Big Sean has a strong vintage T-shirt game, and with only 30 to 40 tees, he’s also incredibly selective about the ones he owns. His Selena shirt lives among his Waiting to Exhale, Wu-Tang Clan and Janet Jackson 1994 world tour tees.
“Selena’s a legend,” he told Billboard. “She did it big; she was the first. I’m going to rock her on the tee, just like I rock Tupac, just like I rock Biggie.”
Now, eight months later, Kylie Jenner has also worn her Selena shirt – the same one Los Angeles vintage shop For All to Envy! posted just a week ago on its Instagram page. (It’s sold out on For All to Envy, btw.)
Though Kylie only gave us a quick look at the shirt on Snapchat, she also shared a picture of herself wearing the shirt on her Instagram account.
Until she speaks out, we won’t know how she feels about Selena (haters might point out that she was born after Selena had already died, but then again Selena has been able to connect with plenty of new generations of fans.) In the meantime, the Internet has some theories and lots of feelings:
http://instagram.com/p/BCwfbUSx1Ao/
https://twitter.com/Jamean93/status/707785895907237888
https://twitter.com/Crystal_Islands/status/707781907132579840
https://twitter.com/_wtheli/status/707776398002245632