Jennifer Lawrence Takes a Page Out of Zendaya’s Challengers Playbook
The Challengers effect is real. Today, Jennifer Lawrence did her best Tahsi Duncan cosplay as she hit the streets of New York City with one clear message: “I TOLD YA.”
Lawrence was spotted in the Big Apple wearing the Jonathan Anderson-designed Loewe t-shirt that was featured throughout Challengers. Both Zendaya’s Tashi and Josh O’Connor’s character Patrick slipped into the shirt at multiple points throughout the Luca Guadagnino film and its attendant press tour. Lawrence, for her part, tucked her graphic tee into high-waisted black pants from La Ligne. She accessorized her off-duty outfit with a Dior saddle bag, black sandals, and square-frame sunglasses.
Now, the jury is still out on what message Lawrence is sending with her latest outfit. But, along with having been a major focal point of Challengers, Lawrence’s top and dress pants combo bore a resemblance to one of Zendaya’s more casual press moments. During an event in April, Zendaya sported the same Loewe t-shirt and similar black trousers which she paired with a khaki trench coat.
O’Connor also brought Loewe’s Challengers t-shirt to the real world when he stepped out to the film’s London premiere in a white button down emblazoned with the phrase. Loewe designer Jonathan Anderson opted for the gray tee version as he posed next to Guadagnino.
The slogan stemmed from a t-shirt popularized by John F. Kennedy Jr. The son of John F. Kennedy was spotted in the shirt several times throughout the ’90s, often while with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. Kennedy Jr.’s shirt appeared to reference his father’s 1961 inaugural button which contained the phrase, “I TOLD YOU SO.”
In April, just days before Challengers’s theatrical debut, Anderson released a limited-edition run (now unavailable) of “I TOLD YA” t-shirts with an accompanying campaign featuring a JFK Jr. lookalike in Tommy Hackett.
“When JFK Jr. was younger, in the ’80s and ’90s, there was kind of an effortlessness to his wardrobe—like he could wear anything, and sex appeal would always be there,” Anderson, who designed costumes for Challengers, told WWD. “I felt like [Patrick] should not care how he looks because, ultimately, he is not endorsed, he is not the biggest star in tennis, so his look becomes a bit ad-hoc and stuck together. But when you look at the base parts of his attire, he has very aged, expensive things, including an old wallet that’s still very expensive, though it’s falling apart."
