How ‘Nope’ Became a Vintage Tee Wonderland

The moment Nope costume designer Alex Bovaird saw it on eBay, she knew she had to show Jordan Peele. As soon as he saw a photo of it—a vintage Jesus Lizard T-shirt featuring an oversized cartoon wolf with a wagging tongue and hearts for pupils—the director lit up. “That T-shirt,” she recalls him saying, “gives me life.”

Luckily for Bovaird, the price of the rare ’90s noise-rock band tee that Keke Palmer’s character Emerald Haywood wears didn’t also give the filmmaker sticker shock. After all, it cost four figures. “I was spending someone else’s money, but we do have an alarmingly tight budget,” Bovaird says. “You can’t just spend willy-nilly. So until they said they liked it, I didn’t buy it. It’s nice, [but] I don’t think I would ever buy myself a thousand-dollar T-shirt.”

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