‘Challengers’: Zendaya, JFK Jr., and the Viral ‘I Told Ya’ T-Shirt

Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is a lot deeper than the “Zendaya-has-a-sexy-threesome” marketing would have had us believe. At its core, it’s a dark portrait of a woman grasping for a taste of her lost love (not a man, but tennis) by engaging in a frenetic, tactical game of back-and-forth (not tennis, but sex).

After I saw a screening of Challengers, I left contemplating the film’s nuanced take on power and obsession—and, bizarrely, my mind kept drifting back to one specific T-shirt. The deceptively simple T-shirt—marl gray with I TOLD YA sprawled across the chest—appears three times on two different characters in Challengers. It has since been replicated on multiple occasions throughout the film's press tour, and today, Loewe has announced an entire “I TOLD YA” collection inspired by the shirt.

What does it mean? Why is this shirt so significant? Could it perhaps hold the key to the film's complex dynamics? These are the questions keeping me up at night, so, I bring you something absolutely no one asked for: the ultimate deep dive into the I TOLD YA shirt from Challengers. I give you fair warning—this is a complicated, multi-layered sartorial journey and you might not like where we end up.

First, a brief overview of the film: Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) is a tennis prodigy. Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) are doubles partners and they are both obsessed with her. After an almost-threesome in which Tashi makes the boys kiss her and each other, a dynamic unfolds in which Tashi plays with her boy toys, telling them how they can win her heart—it usually involves them being really good at hitting a ball. While dating Patrick, Tashi suffers a horrific knee injury and her career is cut short. Later, she couples up with Art and, simultaneously, becomes his coach. Everything comes to a head at a Challenger tournament where the two men battle it out one last time—Tashi still pulling the strings, still metaphorically whacking the ball from off the courts.

Now, onto the shirt. First, we must examine the shirt itself: gray, boxy, sporty, with the three words I TOLD YA printed in three rows in big, black, bold letters. It’s a shirt that has something to say, and says it, loudly and proudly. What do these words imply? Aggression, self-assuredness, a raging ego. In short, everything that makes Tashi a not-so-likable person and a really excellent tennis player. “I told you” implies being right—and a little cocky about it. As in, “I told you so.” As in, “I told you, I am not just your wife, I am your coach and you will do as I say.” Or something like that. I am also intrigued by the use of “ya” rather than “you”—how flippant! How nonchalant! How powerful! From a purely aesthetic perspective, I am also drawn to the three separate lines of text, the word “told” sandwiched between “I” and “ya”—this might be a stretch, but it’s giving threesome.

‘Challengers’ Is a Grand Slam of Sex and Sweat

In the film, the oversized shirt first appears on Tashi during her Stanford days. She wears it during a scene in which she has lunch with Art, who attempts one of his few real power plays in the film. He tells her Patrick, whom Tashi is at this point dating, is no good. Tashi is having none of it. She storms off, the bold letters on shirt offering a final, wordless warning to a deflated Art: “I told you, I’m the one pulling the strings here.”

The shirt’s next appearance is in Tashi’s dorm room when Patrick visits Stanford. The pair start to make out, only to have an angry, pointless row about her tennis career. Patrick grabs his stuff as he storms off, wearing the same “I TOLD YA” T-shirt—which was clearly his all along.

The shirt next appears in a scene when Art is trying to help Tashi rehabilitate her knee. Patrick, gone from their lives and playing on the pro tour, wears it as he watches them from the stands. It’s a ballsy move from Patrick, who, in wearing the shirt, references his old relationship with Tashi. It’s a visual reminder of the power he still holds over both of the players on the court below. Patrick, we realize, is also capable of bold, aggressive moves.

He wears the shirt yet again when he bumps into Tashi at the Challenger tournament, many years later. Now, Tashi is the wife and coach of Art—but Art has lost his zest for tennis and, in turn, she has lost her zest for him. When Patrick turns up in the bold, egotistical shirt from their shared past, it’s an even more bitter echo of the passion Tashi has lost. Now that Art has lost his drive, she might only be able to find it in (or perhaps with the help of) Patrick—a brash man who pulls off the I TOLD YA shirt with ease. And, without giving any spoilers, that’s exactly what happens.

Looking at the shirt’s journey throughout the film, it’s a clear indicator of the power plays taking place between these three characters.

However, there are more layers to unpack.

As costume designer Jonathan Anderson explained in an interview with WWD, the shirt is an exact replica of a shirt worn by JFK Jr. in the ’80s. He wore it tucked into a pair of white shorts paired with a headband while playing with his dog in the park. He looked—well—just like a cocky tennis player. It’s easy to see why Anderson latched onto the look.

“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,” said Anderson, explaining that JFK Jr. became a key inspiration for Patrick’s character.

In another interview, Anderson revealed that the shirt was his favorite look in the entire film, thanks to its layered meaning. “I wanted this t-shirt to kind of reappear twice,” said Anderson to British Vogue. “And as simple as it is it was nice to kind of like to have this little thing that was like my own little thing on top of the character.”

His “own little thing on top of the character” has since become a pretty big (and expensive) thing. O'Connor, Zendaya, and Anderson (Mike Faist still isn’t allowed to tell anyone anything, apparently) have all sported a version of the shirt on the red carpet throughout the press tour. And more recently, Anderson, who is also, incidentally, creative director of LOEWE, has dropped an I TOLD YA collection through his fashion house. Now, you too can own the I TOLD YA shirt for a mere $330!

And so, the cynical conclusion to the I TOLD YA shirt saga is that while the shirt, yes, captures all of the beautiful, thorny nuance of the Challengers threesome, and, yes, it’s a perfect sporty ode to JFK Jr.’s chic outfit from the ’80s, it is also a way to sell expensive designer shirts.

Is this bad? Or is it merely an inevitable progression in film marketing? After all, fashion has become a key element of film publicity. Just look at Zendaya’s so-called “method dressing” that has seen her wearing white dresses and tennis ball shoes throughout the film’s press tour. Her looks have been great. And they have generated endless buzz for the film. The same thing happened with Margot Robbie’s smart on-theme looks during last year’s Barbie press tour. And, like last year’s summer hit, it’s inevitable that cinemagoers will flock to theaters wearing their tennis whites for Guadagnino’s latest offering.

Yes, the LOEWE collection is just a little sickening in its overt money-making intentions—and yes, I do really want one of the shirts. But this deep dive was always going to leave us with conflicting emotions—I told ya!

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