December 24, 2019

Heroes of the 2010s: Lenny Kravitz’s Giant Scarf

It was as if a handmade gift from your grandma had gone viral.

Mother Jones Illustration

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

The staff of Mother Jones is rounding up the decade’s heroes and monsters. Find them all here.

Before Americans bastardized the Danish coziness lifestyle trend called hygge, before HBO revolutionized winter wear with a hit series about media ownership and turtlenecks (mostly turtlenecks), before Baby Yoda sipped tea in a sheepskin cloak, there was Lenny Kravitz and his blanket scarf. 

Back in 2012, Kravitz stepped out for a quick grocery store run that turned into one of this decade’s most wholesome memes. The viral paparazzi photo is relatively standard—it shows Kravitz in sunglasses and a knit hat, strolling down the New York sidewalk—save for the fact that he’s wearing a scarf that would be more at home on a queen-sized bed.

And as the meme’s popularity grew, so did the scarf itself.

Nearly 10 years later, Kravitz is still being asked about the iconic scarf.  Fashion magazines still debate whether the photo depicts Kravitz’s biggest style fail or the day “Lenny Kravitz invented scarves.” When Jimmy Fallon brought it up in a 2018 interview, Kravitz groaned, “I cannot escape this.”

Quite frankly, I’m not sure why he would want to. In a decade marred by impending climate disaster and the crumbling of American democracy, Kravitz and his scarf evoke a sense of coziness, a sense that one can cosset oneself from the ravages of the day, should one have access to the entire ovine population of Scotland. The phrase “Lenny Kravitz scarf” returns more than two dozen results on the popular craft and e-commerce site Etsy, and according to Google trends, there’s been a spike in searches for that phase every December since 2012. 

And even if duvet-sized scarves aren’t to your taste, there’s some comforting nostalgia in the fact that a scarf (and don’t even get me started on The Dress) could go viral in the early half of the decade. Now, whenever I see a celebrity name trending, it almost always means they’ve denied the Holocaust or said something horrible about trans people or stuck up for plutocrats. The longevity of the Kravitz meme is proof that not all heroes wear capes; some wear comically large scarves.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE ON MOTHER JONES' FINANCES

We need to start being more upfront about how hard it is keeping a newsroom like Mother Jones afloat these days.

Because it is, and because we're fresh off finishing a fiscal year, on June 30, that came up a bit short of where we needed to be. And this next one simply has to be a year of growth—particularly for donations from online readers to help counter the brutal economics of journalism right now.

Straight up: We need this pitch, what you're reading right now, to start earning significantly more donations than normal. We need people who care enough about Mother Jones’ journalism to be reading a blurb like this to decide to pitch in and support it if you can right now.

Urgent, for sure. But it's not all doom and gloom!

Because over the challenging last year, and thanks to feedback from readers, we've started to see a better way to go about asking you to support our work: Level-headedly communicating the urgency of hitting our fundraising goals, being transparent about our finances, challenges, and opportunities, and explaining how being funded primarily by donations big and small, from ordinary (and extraordinary!) people like you, is the thing that lets us do the type of journalism you look to Mother Jones for—that is so very much needed right now.

And it's really been resonating with folks! Thankfully. Because corporations, powerful people with deep pockets, and market forces will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. Only people like you will.

There's more about our finances in "News Never Pays," or "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," and we'll have details about the year ahead for you soon. But we already know this: The fundraising for our next deadline, $350,000 by the time September 30 rolls around, has to start now, and it has to be stronger than normal so that we don't fall behind and risk coming up short again.

Please consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

—Monika Bauerlein, CEO, and Brian Hiatt, Online Membership Director

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate