Scratch-N-Sniff T-shirts Are Here (and They Are Expensive)

How do you make a better T-shirt? Sure, you can use soft materials, source the materials responsibly or use some really nice ink for the decoration. But at the end of the day, it’s still just a T-shirt.

But what if it smelled?

No, not like a gym shirt. I mean like those scratch-n-sniff stickers of childhood. Actually, I mean exactly like those stickers.

Luxury fashion company Lanvin debuted a line of T-shirts that function just like those stickers, but they cost $590 each. The idea actually came from the brand’s original scented products—hats, which had been sold at the founder’s Paris shop many years ago.

Interestingly, too, in a time where T-shirt designs have eschewed gender designations and even traditional sizing, the four scented T-shirts are divided into four sizes, three varieties and two genders. There is cherry for men, blackberry for women, and gender-neutral strawberry.

As the universe tends toward ever-increasing disorder, a ⁦@caityweaver⁩ ⁩ FASHION INDUSTRY deep dive! Specifically, on a range of Lanvin scratch-and-sniff T-shirts priced at $590. Read it. It’s a trip. 🍇🍉🍓🍒🍑 https://t.co/VDfKefI2Vl

— Elizabeth Paton (@LizziePaton) November 2, 2020

The New York Times called the scents “faint, but not subtle.” If they’re anything like the stickers, we wonder if they actually smell like they say they do.

“A person standing nearer [to] the wearer than manners permit would be met with the brazenly synthetic aroma of artificial fruits,” The New York Times wrote. “The cherry T-shirt smelled of cherry-flavored cough drops. The blackberry T-shirt smelled purple, the flavor of artificial grape.”

If the scent doesn’t immediately trigger the picture of fruit, the T-shirt designs will, as each has a corresponding design.

Are people going to go out and buy T-shirts that kind of smell like chemicals for almost $600? Maybe a few here and there. But, overall, this is a good show of innovation within the T-shirt world, and proves that you can do more with a product that might have felt “finished.”