McDonald’s has launched an e-commerce store selling everything from fry-emblazoned hair ties to burger bun umbrellas – all branded with Golden Arches imagery. No longer just going to restaurants for the food, people want to buy into a lifestyle, especially if it lends itself to meme culture.

Once a source of fascination for conceptually oriented designers, ugly aesthetics have entered the mainstream, with both brands and consumers championing the bizarre, gross, and impractical. How have minimalism, global politics, and a desire for self-expression fuelled this appreciation?

Though most of them weren’t alive to experience it first-hand, American Gen Zers are obsessed with ‘90s pop culture. Dumbgood is tapping into this ‘fauxstalgia’ with officially licensed streetwear featuring TV and film stills, turning its young customers into walking, talking, retro memes.

Crocs may once have been the punchline of plenty of fashion jokes, but the footwear brand's collaboration with luxury fashion house Balenciaga – an $850 platform clog – demonstrates how the right partnership has the power to shape opinion and sell even the most undesirable of objects.