H&M Made a ‘Dimes Square’ T-Shirt. Why?

This shirt, he adds, “exports a certain cranny of New York to the world and creates this bizarre online identity that’s used by people to go viral.”

The sold-out H&M “Dimes Square” tee.

Courtesy of H&M

Another T-shirt lists various street names—Canal, Ludlow, Division—on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Courtesy of H&M

When Hartman shared a handful of memes skewering the H&M “Dimes Square” shirt on Wednesday (“Name 5 reactionary podcasts,” went one), one commenter knowingly joked, “The Dare T-shirts at Target to complete the prophecy.”

“I’m employed, somebody explain why this is offensive,” read a comment under a different Instagram post, which claimed the internet was “not feeling” the shirt. Another user replied, “For the employed ‘Dimes Square’ is like calling Atlanta ‘Hotlanta.’”

But how exactly this much-memed area made it across several desks at H&M HQ, which is based in Stockholm, is another question altogether.

In an email to GQ on Thursday, an H&M spokesperson said, “The shirt was designed by our global design team. H&M’s design process frequently draws inspiration from various cities, neighborhoods, and their unique cultural atmosphere globally, aiming to celebrate diverse urban landscapes. In this instance, the reference ‘Dimes Square’ was intended as a reference to the geographical location and its creative energy. Any other interpretations of this print are unintended.”

But now that the shirt is out in the world, such interpretations are for the taking. Anecdotally, I have already seen one report of a downtown scenester wearing the H&M tee in Dimes Square this week.

“Some people were responding like, ‘I’m gonna wear it ironically,’ which is like, it’s [at the point] where the snake has already swallowed itself. It’s halfway down the esophagus and trying to eat its way out,” says Hartman.

That said, he adds, “If like, Brandy Melville [had made the shirt], I’m like, ‘Fucking right. Hell yeah.’”