Drew Barrymore rocks vintage Detroit News style on national magazine cover
Oftentimes when celebrities grace the cover of national fashion magazines, they're highly stylized and wearing the latest threads from the industry's hottest designers.
Multi-hyphenate super-celeb Drew Barrymore, however, styled herself for the cover shot of August's InStyle magazine, and chose her own vintage Detroit News T-shirt to accent her casual look.
The cover photo of InStyle's "Bad--- Women" issue shows the actor, director, producer and author in what appears to be a vintage shirt reading "The Detroit News. The first good news of the day."
Wednesday morning, the cover photo of a smiling Barrymore holding up a "peace" sign with her Detroit News shirt, blue jeans, a fisherman-style cap and a furry jacket slung over her shoulder was plastered all over social media, prompting fashionistas to ask "where can I get that shirt?"
Well, The Detroit News has it covered.
The Detroit News $25 vintage T-shirt will be available through July 23 online at detne.ws/vintagetee.
All proceeds from the sale of the shirt will be donated to The Rosa L. Parks Scholarship Foundation, a nonprofit founded by The Detroit News and Detroit Public Schools in 1980.
The foundation awards scholarships to Michigan high school seniors who emulate Mrs. Parks' ideals while demonstrating academic skills, community involvement and economic need. In the past 40 years, The foundation has awarded more than $2 million in scholarships to more than 1,000 high school seniors. It also awards 40 $2,000 to new students annually.
“We’re proud of our nearly 150-year heritage and happy that any proceeds will benefit the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation,” said Gary Miles, editor and publisher of The News. “We helped found the organization 40 years ago with the goal of helping high school graduates who exemplify the ideals of Mrs. Parks to attend college, a vision as important today as it was in 1980.”
On Barrymore's Instagram post, which reached 200,000 likes by late afternoon Wednesday, some fans expressed love for the bright red shirt. When reposted to The Detroit News Instagram account, several readers asked about buying their own version of the throwback threads.
"Love Love Love ... I want one of those shirts!" wrote Instagram user Renee Chase.
The article's author, InStyle editor-in-chief Laura Brown also wants one.
"I gotta get me a shirt!" she posted in a comment on The Detroit News' Instagram page.
“As for me, we just loved retro spirit of the tee and the good news message," Brown told The Detroit News in an email Wednesday evening. "And who doesn’t love Detroit??”
In the feature Barrymore says she "doesn't really know what it means to be a bad---."
"And I'm OK with that. We live in an era when people want to be more than one thing. If you apply yourself and work hard, that’s where the bad---ery comes in. I also love to see the word 'bad---' in a joyful context, like on this cover with a smile, a peace sign, and a shirt that says, 'Good news.' That makes me feel like I’m on the right path."
The Detroit News reached out to Barrymore's agent and the public relations representative for InStyle to get to the bottom of where the Golden Globe Award winner may have picked up the T-shirt. One may guess that she purchased it at a local thrift shop during one of her visits to the area. The consensus among former Detroit News employees is that the shirt's design is from the early 1980s.
In 2009, Barrymore directed a movie that was filmed, in part, in Detroit. "Whip It," starring Ellen Page, Barrymore, Kristen Wiig and Juliette Lewis, was about a teen who rebelled against the world of beauty pageants her mother wanted for a more raucous world of roller derby.
On being in Michigan, both Barrymore and Page were effusive with praise.
"I saw a lot of the state. I actually know it quite well," Barrymore said at the Toronto International Film Festival for the film's premiere in a piece The News ran in October 2009.
"On Saturday nights, I would go to the 8 Ball in Ann Arbor and have a cold PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) and I loved that. I loved the Majestic in Detroit.
"It was great for me because I really found locations that would work. I found wonderful places," Barrymore said. "I felt like it was a blessing we got to shoot there."
In addition to repping The Detroit News, Barrymore also has a vintage-looking University of Michigan sweatshirt that she's been seen wearing in a few of her Instagram videos.
Besides her time at the 8 Ball Saloon below the storied Blind Pig music venue in Ann Arbor, Barrymore visited Tree Town in 2015 for a Michigan Theater event to talk about her memoir "Wildflower."
The August issue of InStyle with Barrymore is set to hit newsstands July 17.
mbaetens@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @melodybaetens