Che Guevara in Popular Culture - in Fashion

In Fashion

• Supermodel Gisele Bündchen donned a bikini adorned with Che Guevara's image for the São Paulo fashion week in July 2002.
• During the October 7, 2002, Vanity Fair photo shoot of the Osbourne family by Annie Leibovitz, son Jack Osbourne is wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt.
• Model/actress Elizabeth Hurley was spotted in 2004 clubbing in London with a $4,500 Che-embroidered Louis Vuitton handbag.
• In 2004, the New York Public Library's gift shop featured a Che Guevara watch. The ad for the watch stated: "Revolution is a permanent state with this clever watch, featuring the classic romantic image of Che Guevara, around which the word 'revolution'-revolves."
• Actor Johnny Depp wears a pendant of Che Guevara around his neck, as can be seen on the February 2005 cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.
• Prince Harry was spotted in July 2006 adorning a Che Guevara t-shirt, leading London tabloids to proclaim him "Havana Henry".
• Rapper Jay-Z, who raps in one of his songs "I'm like Che Guevara with bling on", commonly is seen wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt.

"People wear the image for all kinds of reasons. To some, Che is saint-like. People quote from his writings and aspire to his belief systems. To others it's a generic symbol of rebellion, anti-establishment. And for many, the image has become so diluted, it's just a hip and cool looking t-shirt. A lot of younger people don't even know who it is they are wearing across their chests. We live in a culture today where understanding symbols doesn't necessarily matter."

— Trisha Ziff,
producer of the 2008 documentary Chevolution

• In June 2010, Che's daughter Aleida Guevara, opined at a two-day Che related conference in Vancouver, Canada, that the "ubiquitous exploitation" of Che Guevara's image on t-shirts and paraphernalia would have made her revolutionary father laugh, while joking that "He probably would have been delighted to see his face on the breasts of so many beautiful women."
• A store called La La Ling in Los Angeles sells a Che Guevara shirt for babies — actually, a "onesie." The ad text is as follows: "Now even the smallest rebel can express himself in these awesome baby one-sies. This classic Che Guevara icon is also available on a long-sleeve tee in kids' sizes ... Long live the rebel in all of us ... there's no cooler iconic image than Che!"
• The Onion offers a satirical shirt with Che Guevara himself wearing a Che Guevara shirt. The accompanying sardonic advertisement refers to the "iconic" image as "scarcely seen" since the days when Guevara "freed thousands from the restrictive yoke of T-shirt selection."
• The international retail store Urban Outfitters offers a "Che Cigar" graphic t-shirt, featuring a famous photo of the guerrilla smoking. The item is marketed with the accompanying tag line "kick back with a smoke with Che Guevara."
• The Italian company Belstaff offers a "Trialmaster Che Guevara replica jacket", a wax cotton, 4 pocket, belted, classic motorcycle jacket - offered as "a perfect replica" of the one worn by a youthful Ernesto Guevara during his famous motorcycle journey across Latin America.