Hey, all you fashionistas who follow the Chiefs’ game-day fits. You remember this look from Travis Kelce, don’t you?
It was a mustard-colored suit. The sweater under it was striped. The beanie on his head was maroon.
It looked like a Cheesecake Factory takeout bag?
It went viral.
Yeah, that one.
Now that suit puts Kelce in an awkward situation with girlfriend Taylor Swift.
Nominations for the Webby Awards, which “honors excellence on the Internet,” were announced Tuesday. And Kelce and Swift were both nominated in the same category, Best Creator or Influencer Collaboration (Social Features).
Swift is recognized for her work with Vote.org on National Voter Registration Day.
Kelce is nominated along with the Cheesecake Factory for that fit he wore in Buffalo before the Chiefs beat the Bills 27-24 in an AFC Divisional playoff.
To be blunt: He’s being recognized for his Cheesecake Factory dressing.
They’re competing against Paris Hilton, French pastry chef Amaury Guichon and TikTok’s lip-syncing Tube Girl.
Kelce is actually nominated twice, the other for his “New Heights” podcast with his brother, Jason Kelce.
The public chooses the winners by voting at webbyawards.com through April 18. Winners will be announced May 13.
‘Intercepted the NFL conversation’
Social media ate up the Cheesecake Factory meme on that snowy day in January.
The restaurant chain showed a side-by-side comparison of the football star and one of its striped leftover bags declaring both “fashion icons.”
The tweet on X, formerly Twitter, grabbed more than half a million views by the next morning.
A Cheesecake Factory spokesman said at the time that the company likes to “have fun inserting our iconic take-out bag, our famous ‘brown bread’ and our legendary cheesecake into the online conversation.”
(Thank goodness Kelce didn’t look like a hunk of brown bread.)
The company thus “intercepted the NFL playoffs conversation by noticing the striking resemblance between their distinctive take-out bag and the pregame outfit worn by Travis Kelce, the most talked about football player,” it explained for another award competition.
“A perfectly timed post comparing the player’s turtleneck with the brand bag instantly went viral, turning the Cheesecake Factory into one of the most talked about brands in the post-game coverage and conversation.”
The execution, the company explained, involved “swift communication” between the Cheesecake Factory’s marketing and social media teams.
From content creation to approval, it took less than four minutes to unleash that meme upon the land.
And a $6,000 duffle bag!
But what about the fit itself? Here are the details from the Instagram account StyleByKelce, which follows the tight end’s threads.
The suit was custom from the spring/summer 2024 collection of New York-based American designer Teddy von Ranson.
The multistriped wool turtleneck sweater ($750) was by British fashion line Paul Smith Design.
Kelce also wore $1,245 Signature C de Cartier sunglasses and carried a $5,900 Bottega Veneta Intrecciato duffle.
High fashion for sure. But at the time Jason Kelce quipped that his brother looked like a character from a Wes Anderson movie, a nod to “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.”
Social media laughed too.
But Swifties noticed something else.
Turns out someone else wore this colorful look first.
Oh what a tangled Webby we weave.