Guy Fieri may still rock the frosted tips and goatee, but the chef says his collection of signature bowling shirts has officially been retired.
The Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives star shared in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal that while the tops have become something of a dress code for him ever since he hit it big on the Food Network show, that’s not actually how he likes to dress in his day-to-day life. “I don’t think I even own one [bowling shirt],” he revealed. “I’m pretty much a T-shirt and jeans guy. Shorts. Flip-flops. I’m not a real fashion icon.” He went on to explain that the bowling shirts he wore on the show 15 years ago actually started off as an accident. Fieri just happened to be wearing one in his audition tape for Next Food Network Star, which he would go on to win in 2006. So when he got “a call to do Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives…they said, ‘Bring a short-sleeved collared shirt,’” he explained. And so Fieri chose a gray Dickies work shirt with a dark gray panel down the center. He continued, “When the show got picked up, that’s what I had worn in the pilot. They go, ‘That’s the wardrobe.’”
And the bowling shirts aren’t the only common misconception about the Mayor of Flavortown’s most-beloved attire. Fieri has previously explained that despite being synonymous with button-ups printed with flame imagery, that’s not something he ever wears. In fact, the shirt most people associate with him was actually the uniform at his restaurant Tex Wasabi’s in the 2000s and he hasn’t worn it since. In October 2017, the chef explained on The Sporkful podcast, “There’s a picture of me in a flame shirt that everybody loves. I get that picture sent to me when we do fan mail; it’s the picture they send more than anything. And I think people want to love the shirt…‘cause I hate the shirt. We’d opened a barbecue restaurant—and this was way before even the Food Network—we’d opened a barbecue restaurant, and that was one of the shirts that we had. I don’t know where we got the shirt or what happened. Goddamn I hate that shirt.” But in an interview with People in September, he added, “We had several of our staff wear a flame shirt, that’s where that picture came from. It had nothing to do with an image. Someone got it, somebody ran with it. But it’s hysterical, don’t get me wrong.”
That much-maligned flame shirt also isn’t the only signature aspect of his look that Fieri admits isn’t actually a part of his personal style. It turns out those frosted tips were also a total accident. “A friend of mine is a hairdresser, and I had long hair and she would give me a hard time forever about it and one day I said, ‘Fine, do whatever you want.’ She goes, ‘Whatever I want?,’” he told WSJ, adding that at first, he thought the bleach was shampoo that she hadn’t washed out. “She’s like, ‘No, that’s your hairstyle.’”