I Took the Viral Stanley Cup to Fashion Week

I scored the juiciest, most in-demand accessory at New York Fashion Week. It wasn’t a new intrecciato Bottega bag handcrafted in some storied factory in Italy. Nor was it a butter-soft leather jacket from the latest Phoebe Philo drop, with a price tag equivalent to a mortgage payment. No, it was a pale pink 40-ounce Stanley Cup with a thick protruding straw, officially named the Adventure Quencher H2.0 Travel Tumbler, that retails for $45. Okay, maybe it wasn’t the hottest thing at Fashion Week, but it certainly has been the hottest accessory on social media.

Stanley, an American food-and-beverage container company whose founder invented all-steel vacuum-insulated bottles over a century ago in Massachusetts, has seen its chuggers blow up on TikTok this winter. The brand recently collaborated with Starbucks on a collection of searing pink and red cups so popular they have become a new target for scalpers—selling on StockX, a platform typically reserved for rare sneakers, for $250 and up. (I found one on eBay for $355, whose description included the assurance “CUP IN HAND! I am selling the cup. There are a lot of scammers on eBay trying to sell pictures of the cup. Don’t be fooled!”)

Stanley Quencher H2.0 Travel Tumbler

The recycled-aluminum vessel has inspired countless think pieces and mini investigations, including pieces in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Atlantic, all attempting to trace and make sense of its viral popularity. The official Stanley TikTok has a fun way of integrating the brand’s fans into its feed: In one video, viewed over 56.6 million times, a woman shows how her car was damaged when it caught on fire—but the Stanley Cup has remains intact in its cup holder. (Stanley later gifted her a new car, and also shared that online.)

The rabid obsession with the cup has translated to big-time moolah, too, of course. Stanley’s revenue increased from $73 million in 2019 to a whopping $750 million in 2023, according to CNBC.

Courtesy of Liana Satenstein

The craze over the zaftig mug is taking place very much outside of fashion’s epicenters. One video I saw on TikTok showed a ferocious pilgrimage to Target for an exclusive Starbucks x Stanley Cup drop—a postapocalyptic-looking mob of women running toward their goodies like New Yorkers at a sample sale for the Row. And the cup is great for chugging from in an SUV, its plump container resting easy in a cup holder, and makes sense slapped down on an office desk.

But what about its fashion appeal? Is it comfortable to haul along to a fashion show? And more importantly, does it hold up as any kind of status symbol there? Would sipping sink water from it while sitting front row at Thom Browne, watching model Alex Consani shed a jacket that took months to hand-stitch, to a recitation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” enhance the Stanley Cup’s power or diminish it? If no one notices your Stanley Cup, do you even have one? Or if they do notice it and hate it, what does that mean?

Courtesy of Liana Satenstein

My first day with my new appendage, I took an electric Citi Bike from south Brooklyn to the Eckhaus Latta show in TriBeCa with it nestled—except for the straw—into my vintage Y2K-era Louis Vuitton Multipli Cite bag. At stoplights, I’d lean over and take a swig. By the time I got to the show, a thin layer of water was sloshing around in the cap. No big deal.

Courtesy of Liana Satenstein

The real tidal wave of commotion was when I entered the building. A small group of friends and colleagues swarmed me when they saw the top of the Stanley Cup poking out from my bag, like a swaddled newborn peeking its tiny head from a blanket. Cue the cries of “Is that a Stanley Cup?” and “I cannot.” I relished the attention so much that by the end of the show, I was carrying it around with pride, like a trophy.

Courtesy of Liana Satenstein

The next day, I checked what other bags I had in my carryall arsenal. Was it possible to chic-ify the Stanley Cup? I grabbed a Michael Kors–era Celine PVC tote from spring 2000—a collection that essentially revolves around a vision of an oligarch’s hot-bodied sidepiece stepping off of a helicopter.

I plopped my filled-to-the-brim cup into the clear bag and headed out to Fashion Week again, showing off the Stanley’s buxom steel bod to everyone I passed.

Courtesy of Liana Satenstein

And it was a hit—a mini celebrity, or maybe a sideshow freak. Showgoers loved to take photos of it. Interview editor Taylore Scarabelli gleefully wrote “subverting the basic bitch” in response to a photo of me sipping from it. She has a point. The Stanley Cup has so far been relegated to mass-market basic bitch–dom. But there is always a chance it might be on the arms of downtown girlies or runways in a few seasons.

Fashion has a history of glomming onto ironic trends and transforming them into something cheeky and sophisticated. The Ugg craze seeped its way from sororities onto the feet of style stars and later into integrations with brands: Telfar, Y/Project, and Collina Strada have all released their own iterations of the sheepskin boot. And Crocs went from the hooves of chef Mario Batali to the runways of Balenciaga (where the bulbous resinous closed-toe sandals were transformed with violent girthy platforms and adorned with brutalist spikes) and Simone Rocha (where they were twisted into a confectionary, bedazzled lady clog). The fashion potential might be even realer than you think: Former Crocs chief marketing officer Terence Reilly is now global president of Stanley.

Bringing the Stanley Cup to Fashion Week was, admittedly, a party trick—a conversation starter, and one dripping with irony at that. Perhaps, though, I’m just an early adopter of the fashion world’s next obsession. Maybe a collaboration with a designer is coming in the near future. After all, the cup could serve as an incredible easel to be freaked with—a tabula rasa of sorts, and a heritage item in its own right. Fashion is always thirsty, after all. Drink up.

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