Call it chic or call it cringe: Clothing that bears the name of a city near or far has become a closet staple for many consumers in recent years.
Once mostly reserved for impulse purchases from kitschy tourist shops while traveling, now clothing with the name of far-off places is just as likely to be purchased at home. Consider the iconic “I love New York” tee, a favored souvenir for nearly 50 years. Gone are the days when you would need to brave the Times Square crowds to get one. You can buy a similar-looking version from Walmart for less than $10 or an embroidered crewneck version for $380 from Lingua Franca.
Clothing makers and consumers alike are seemingly indiscriminate about what passes for cool. H&M and Zara have hawked generic-looking T-shirts with any number of city names splashed across the chest, while Balenciaga and Alexander Wang have upgraded city skyline Ts with a designer spin and their logos to justify heftier price tags.
Oh, the places you’ll go—or not
The global souvenir market, already expanding since 2021, is projected to surge more than 40% from 2024 levels to nearly $20 billion by 2033, according to a report from Straits Research. This growth is fueled in part by a generational shift in travel behavior. A 2025 global travel trends report from American Express found that millennial and Gen Z travelers are, by far, the most likely to shop for one-of-a-kind souvenirs to remind them of their trip.
Brands have tapped into this sense of wanderlust among younger consumers, which explains why place-name items began appearing at all sorts of non-souvenir stores. In turn, this clothing earned a place in the closets of consumers who want to convey that they’re worldly, says Sara Holzman, style director for Marie Claire.
“It’s a neutral way to wear your own postcard of where you’ve been,” Holzman explains. “People are wearing it almost like a souvenir that they’ve been there and it’s kind-of trickled into this bona fide fashion statement.”
While travel has resumed to pre-COVID-19 levels—and for many Americans, travel is such a nonnegotiable that they’ll cut back on other spending just to afford a trip—there are other ways to collect proverbial postcards of a jet-set lifestyle. Wearing clothes from popular destinations is one way, but it’s not the only way; there’s even an app people can download to create fake, AI-generated vacation photos.
Hannah Watkins, head of prints and graphics at trend-forecasting agency WGSN, notes that “souvenir-style graphics are helping to satisfy consumers’ cravings for travel while acting as escapism for the cash-strapped consumer booking staycations over expensive getaways.”
Mad for Malibu: Signaling Status in the Experience Economy
A notable uptick in the so-called experience economy in the post-COVID era, along with the perceived social status that comes with being well-traveled, also factor into this fashion trend, says Reilly Newman, a brand strategist and founder of Motif Brands.
Whether or not someone has actually visited a place doesn’t matter as much as the lifestyle that clothing suggests, Newman says. He has watched with some bemusement how trendy it’s become for younger women, in particular, to sport brightly colored clothing bearing the word “Malibu,” a place he knows well from regular family visits.
“Perception seemingly matters more than reality when it comes to this trend,” Newman states. “It’s status signaling based off of the new currency of travel and culture.”
Walking through a mall and seeing how many retailers have co-opted the appeal of the perceived Malibu lifestyle illustrates that brands recognize how important it is to tap into a particular vibe, he adds. Whereas high-end designers may want to ensure their logo is on a tourist-looking T-shirt, middle-of-the-road brands know their name doesn’t carry as much weight as the value they bring in curating an aesthetic.
“These brands are trying to ride on the coattails of this trend and the association that comes with it,” Newman says. “As long as it gives that beach-town vibe, people don’t care who’s selling it.”
Decoding Destination Dressing
Even if souvenir slogans are often deemed perennial for graphic T-shirts, the “newness” factor is that brands are leaning into even more specific details about a place, including location-specific food and drinks that give it flavor, Watkins says. This trend of “destination dressing” has extended to broader concepts, like the viral #SardineSummer graphics that served as mementos for European holidays last summer.
Tracing the origins of any fashion trend is tricky, and there’s limited data to track the precise rise of the place-name clothing trend. Fashion trends typically begin with luxury brands before trickling down to the masses and are often cyclical, hearkening back to prior eras.
For instance, fashionistas have been digging into the archives of Princess Diana in recent years for inspiration, including her mid-1990s tendency to pair an oversize graphic sweatshirt bearing the names of U.S. universities like Harvard or Northwestern with biker shorts.
“She’s on a fashion pedestal, and rightly so,” Holzman comments.
The common thread is aspirational signaling. When you buy a shirt bearing the name of a university you may (or may not) have attended, a luxury hotel you may (or may not) have stayed at, or a place you may (or may not) have visited, these choices are all emblematic of a similar idea: They signal who you are or who you aspire to be.
“It’s all in the zeitgeist,” Holzman adds, noting that brands recognize there’s a market for clothing that offers “cool-kid credibility” or some perceived cachet. “They’re selling a lifestyle.”
More Localization to Come
With so many people dressing like they’re constantly on the go, this fashion trend isn’t likely to go anywhere anytime soon. To appease some consumers’ desire for “status merchandise,” several luxury hotels and even farmers markets have expanded their merchandising departments to sell branded clothing that can be purchased only on-site, Holzman says.
Brands have already shifted beyond generic city names to specific neighborhoods—a favorite for H&M these days is New York’s SoHo neighborhood, for example. The next iteration of graphic tees may focus on what insiders know and love about a place, Watkins says, noting that WGSN has been tracking the rise of Highsnobiety’s “Not In” city series, which features
