All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
What’s the best way to win a breakup? If you’re Ariana Madix, it’s taking your humiliation and heartbreak and turning it into cold, hard cash.
The Vanderpump Rules star dropped a line of merchandise last week, following her extremely public breakup with her partner of nearly a decade, Tom Sandoval. As the entire Bravo world now knows, Sandoval and Madix broke up last month after she discovered he had been having a months-long affair with her friend and costar Raquel Leviss.
“Hey guys…I really wanted to share something exciting with you,” Madix posted on her Instagram Stories. “If you go to this link something cool is there.”
The link led to a new website, officialteamariana.com, where Madix unveiled her new line. On the website you can buy sweatshirts, mugs, T-shirts, sweatpants, and more emblazoned with a variety of designs that feel very Madix. These include some of her iconic lines from the show (“I was born cool”) and drawings of her beloved, recently departed dog, Charlotte.
But it’s some of the other merch that truly showcases Madix’s ability to turn the lemons of her public humiliation into some Beyoncé-level lemonade. She’s selling a $30 “wet blanket,” an apparent nod to a criticism she has faced from costar Lala Kent on the show in the past. Since the breakup she’s faced similar sneers from people on the internet, who have blamed Madix directly or indirectly for Sandoval’s dalliances because, they say, of her “boring” personality. Another piece of Madix’s merch fights back at that notion, cheekily reading, “It’s not me, it’s you.”
This week Madix dropped her most scathing sartorial clapback yet: a T-shirt ($20) and sweatshirt ($30) emblazoned with the phrase “the #1 guy in the group.” VPR fans immediately knew that Madix’s co-opting the phrase was a dig at her ex. It was Sandoval who had previously been declared by as “the number one guy” in the group, meaning the men of VPR. (The phrase was originally uttered by fired star Jax Taylor, who unequivocally was never the number one guy, despite his insistence. He recently declared on Twitter that he also now believes Madix is “the number one.”)
By dropping the “number one guy” merch and poking fun at her own publicly perceived weaknesses, Madix is making a bold statement. Not only does she not believe she is at fault for the breakup; she’s winning it. Screw you, she seems to be saying. You want to humiliate me? I’ll take my humiliation and monetize it. My success will be my revenge.
While Madix may be the first example I could find of pure “revenge merch” after a public scandal, dropping a merch line is one of the go-to ways to commodify celebrity these days and to make a cultural impact. Concert T-shirts or sweatshirts with a band’s logo have always been a fashion staple, but merch has been taken to new heights by internet celebrities. Fans of YouTubers and influencers buy clothing, accessories, and more from their favorite creators as a way to outwardly express fandom but also signal traits about themselves in the process.
For instance, the buyer of a matching sweatsuit reading “Absolutely Not,” the name of the podcast hosted by comedian and influencer Heather McMahon, is not only demonstrably declaring their fandom of her but conveying aspects of how they would like to be perceived as well. McMahon has made a name for herself as an irreverent, take-no-bullshit woman who doesn’t apologize for her likes and dislikes, and the wearer of a sweatshirt with her catchphrase and a drawing of McMahon triumphantly kicking her leg in the air is buying into that ethos. Similarly, fans of Madix who buy her merch are not only sending a message that they are #TeamAriana but are buying into her message of empowerment after heartbreak.
One fan, Hannah Markle, told me she had never bought any merch from a Bravo star before, but Madix’s saga compelled her. She’s eagerly waiting for her package’s arrival.
“I just felt like she really deserves as much support as possible after everything she’s been through,” she said.
Another fan, Melanie, and her daughter, Madison, also decided to buy some of the merch to support Madix. Madison, Melanie told me, is quite pleased with her “I was born cool” bucket hat.
“I highly recommend and am actually going back to buy another sweatshirt or two,” Melanie said.
The merch got similarly rave reviews from another fan, Meagan, who bought a cap and a hoodie.
“I loved all the merchandise she put out,” she said. “It’s totally her and very affordable.”
On social media the announcement that Madix was selling merch was embraced as a way to not only show support for a fan fave going through a tough time but also ensure Madix could financially weather the storm of breaking off her long-term relationship.
Twitter content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
“Let’s get this merch SOLD OUT y’all!!!” read one tweet. “Let’s make her so successful that Tom Sandoval spontaneously combusts,” read another.
Madix hasn’t commented on how the #TeamAriana line is selling, but she’s already been buoyed by other ventures since the Scandoval. Shortly after the story broke, Madix and her business partner and costar Katie Maloney started selling, you guessed it, merch, for the sandwich shop they are planning to open this summer, Something About Her.
Maloney told fans on Instagram that the merch drop has been so successful it has been a huge boon for the shop financially as it prepares to open its doors.
“Things are really happening now and that’s because of all of you that supported us by buying merch,” she said.
Ariana Madix’s ability to monetize her pain may be the best revenge of all. Put that on a T-shirt.
