Justin Timberlake Just Announced More Tour Dates—In a Cindy Sherman Sweatshirt, No Less

With Man of the Woods, Justin Timberlake’s latest album, the singer-songwriter returned to his Tennessee country roots to make music that he described as “modern Americana with 808s.” To go along with this full-bodied American persona, Timberlake’s been wearing a lot of flannel on tour, sometimes finishing off the look with an acoustic guitar in his hands. He even designed some of his own versions of the woodsy staple (along with trucker hats and shearling coats) for his Levi’s collaboration that he debuted a few months ago.

Since the Man of the Woods tour began in March, Timberlake has postponed multiple dates in the past few months due to bruised vocal cords. Earlier today, though, he posted a video to Instagram announcing that the he’s officially back on the road in a behind-the-scenes shot from an arena in Washington, D.C., a statement that he made not in one of his trusty flannels, but instead in an Undercover x Cindy Sherman collaboration sweatshirt.

It’s a mystifying choice in some ways, as the connection between the conceptual photographer who specializes in a surreal type of self-portraiture and Timberlake’s work is not exactly clear-cut. The sweatshirt in question displays Sherman’s name in bold capital letters and a photo from her early series “Untitled Film Stills.” It’s one in which Sherman disguised herself as the actress Frances Farmer, who was institutionalized in the 1940s and allegedly underwent an involuntary lobotomy. It’s a striking image—she’s depicted in the photo hunched over in a severe blazer with her fists clenched at her side—which becomes all the more confounding when seen on Timberlake in a massive stadium. Whether Timberlake’s a secret art history buff, a Frances Farmer fan, or just taking a break from his trusty flannels, is unclear, but Sherman seemed to find it amusing at the very least: She posted about it on her own Instagram, too.