Matthew Healy, of The 1975, is hands on when it comes to his band's chic and simple tour merchandise. Picture: Getty Images
CONCERT merchandise is going high fashion.
Kanye West, Rihanna and Justin Bieber are leading a fashion-fuelled reboot of the traditional tour T-shirt, selling bomber jackets, tees and hoodies that have serious style cred.
In an era when touring is more lucrative to an artist's bottom line than album sales, merchandise is how acts are selling their "brands" to fans.
Tour merchandise, sold at concerts and online, is an extension of their personal style, attracting credibility on social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, and becoming a "key revenue stream", style bible Business of Fashion reports.
Hailey Baldwin, sporting a Justin Bieber 'Purpose' tour T-shirt in West Hollywood. Picture: SplashSource:Splash News Australia
Such is the interest in West, Bieber and Rihanna-branded merchandise that they regularly launch pop-up stores in cities where they are touring (Rihanna has one in Paris this week at high-end retailer Colette, stocked with merchandise from her Anti tour, along with her Puma, Manolo Blahnik, Dior and perfume collaborations).
British band The 1975 have nailed the stylish merchandise trend, with branded T-shirts and crew neck sweaters inspired by high-end designers like Saint Laurent and Chanel.
"It's quite simple. We just tried to make it as chic as possible," The 1975 lead singer Matthew Healy told News Corp Australia.
Stylish rocker Matthew Healy, singer of British band The 1975. Picture: Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images
"Music and fashion is intrinsically combined. The 1975 is a world for me — there's a lot of kind of rules and I like there to be consistency across the board," Healy said.
Wearing a grey Rodarte sweater (with a love heart print), black Vans sneakers, and a pair of black skinny jeans, it's clear Healy, 27, knows fashion. His personal wardrobe includes Acne, Alexander Wang and JW Anderson.
Healy designs The 1975's merchandise with a collaborator.
"I love clean lines, basically. I love great design in any form," the Love Me singer said.
"There's quite obvious references to the classic Chanel stuff with the box, I think that's kind of where it came from. Saint Laurent, for example ... very chic. I just like simplicity.
"Street fashion nowadays ... if you look at how combined everything has become, pop music and R&B and rap music, they've all collided and the fashion has collided.
"At the moment, everything seems to be simple and tonal, it's all like flesh-coloured, simple stuff.
"All that kind of Yeezus stuff," Healy said, name-checking Kanye West's line. "I just kind of do what I think looks nice."
And while Healy is hands on when it comes to his band's merchandise range, he admits he doesn't think too much about what he wears on stage (The 1975 are touring their latest album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware Of It, and played at Splendour in the Grass).
"I wear anything that I like," Healy said. Pointing out the printed top his is wearing, Healy adds: "Contrary to this, I don't tend to like graphic stuff that much".
"That's why I've always struggled with merchandise because it has to be graphic — it has to have the identity of the band.
"I tend not to think about it (onstage outfits) too much any more.
"I say that, I'll have like 10 minutes of figuring it out but it's not premeditated.
"Girls can see outfits before they put them on and I'll just put a random combination of clothes that looks about right."
Kourtney Kardashian wearing the unofficial Kardashian uniform — a bomber jacket from Kanye West's Life of Pablo tour. Picture: SplashSource:Splash News Australia
Kim Kardashian wearing a khaki jacket from her husband Kanye West's Life of Pablo tour. Picture: SplashSource:Splash News Australia
"I'm a sucker for a vintage band tee, I've got hundreds of old classics. I've got a Sonic Youth T-shirt that I've worn to death," Healy said.
"It's like sonic green and sonic pink and these quite intense colours.
"If you look at early original Black Flag T-shirts, they'll go for $1000. Old school ones that I've had my eye on I've seen get more expensive and more expensive until it's quite ludicrous."
So what is the most Healy has spent on another band's T-shirt?
"The most I've spent on a vintage T-shirt is my Sonic Youth one, which is an original, I think it was about 200 pounds (about $350)," Healy said, of the Sonic Youth tour top he bought at a vintage store in Tokyo.
"That's a lot for a T-shirt," Healy said. "You're buying the cultural relevance."
Justin Bieber, pictured wearing a Marilyn Manson tank on stage during his Purpose world tour at Madison Square Garden in New York. Picture: Kevin Mazur/Getty ImagesSource:Splash News Australia
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