By Lyra Quinn, Department of Unlicensed Emotional Infrastructure
A relatively plain T-shirt bearing the phrase “You Project Too Much” has quietly destabilised workplace dynamics, yoga classes, and three group chats, as wearers report a sharp uptick in awkward silences, unprompted apologies, and “weird but healing” eye contact.
“It’s just a shirt,” said Chloe, 34, who wore it to a brunch and accidentally triggered three personal breakthroughs and one amicable breakup.
The shirt is part of the subversive Qrious Threads line, which has been loosely linked to a designer known as The QR Poet, a figure last seen nodding solemnly at a pigeon in Sheffield.
New Movements Traced to Cotton-Based Insight
Authorities have been slow to respond, citing confusion, mixed feelings, and, in one case, tears.
Key events include:
The Apology Plague
Originated when someone read “Maybe It’s You” on a stranger’s chest and muttered “…shit, maybe it is.”
Within days, emotional accountability went viral. Therapists report appointment slots now open with “I think I’m the problem.”The Meta-Mute Protes
Sparked by the shirt “I’m Not Avoiding You, I’m just bad at hiding”
Now spreading among emotionally literate introverts, who protest by being extremely present and saying nothing.The QR Loop
Shirts with scannable codes have led users into recursive feedback cycles of poetry, voice notes, ambient music, and tearfully whispered calls to action.
“I scanned it at a petrol station,” said Jamal, 42. “Next thing I knew, I was forgiving my dad and buying oat milk.”
Critics Demand Answers, Receive Gentle Prompts Instead
Conservative MPs have demanded tighter controls on “unregulated introspection apparel,” citing a rise in “feeling too much in the queue at Greggs.”
But attempts to contact the brand’s founder have so far been met only with a fresh shirt drop reading:
“Healing Is Not Linear But This Cotton Is.”
Philosophers Shrug, Hug
With formal ideologies failing to keep pace, some scholars suggest the shirts are operating as “empathic viruses,” spreading a kind of decentralised, wearable philosophy.
A final note, scrawled on a napkin found near an abandoned sticker that read “Satire Was A Cry For Help,” reads:
“Somewhere between a punchline and a mantra… a movement.”
