Guy Fieri Is Ditching His Signature Look

Guy Fieri is ditching his signature style for something that feels a bit more true to his day-to-day aesthetic. The Food Network star, 55, may be known for his over-the-top bowling shirts after first sporting the ostentatious top in the pilot of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, but Fieri revealed in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal that he’s more like to reach for a simple T-shirt in his own closet.

“I don’t think I even own one [bowling shirt],” the Guy’s Grocery Games host told the outlet in an interview published March 20. “I’m pretty much a T-shirt and jeans guy. Shorts. Flip-flops. I’m not a real fashion icon.” The origin of the iconic bowling shirt aesthetic actually dates back almost two decades, as Fieri was sporting one in his 2005 audition tape for Season 2 of Next Food Network Star, the network’s competition series that he won in 2006.

Then, when the TV personality got the call to do when Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Fieri revealed he was told, “Bring a short-sleeved collared shirt.” The grey Dickies work shirt Fieri wore for the initial shoot ended up being a smash hit “When the show got picked up, that’s what I had worn in the pilot,” he recalled “They go, ‘That’s the wardrobe.’” It was that pilot that would set the scene for Fieri’s well-known style for the rest of his career and would go on to include his beloved flame button-up and even his frosted spikey hairdo, shockingly enough.

The fiery short-sleeved shirt actually had less to do with the chef and more to do with Fieri’s restaurant, Tex Wasabi’s, back in the 2000s. “We had several of our staff wear a flame shirt, that’s where that picture came from,” he told PEOPLE in September of how the restaurant’s uniform turned into a whole phenomenon. “It had nothing to do with an image. Someone got it, somebody ran with it. But it’s hysterical, don’t get me wrong.”

As for his bleached hair and bold style, Fieri recalled to WSJ how it came about. “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 recalled. When she finally unveiled his finished ‘do, Fieri confessed he thought she simply hadn’t washed the shampoo out yet. “She’s like, ‘No, that’s your hairstyle.’”

The Guy’s Ultimate Game Night star at first hid the new look with a beanie altogether, but over time he came to embrace his new look. As for the sunglasses he rests backward on top of his spikes? That comes out of pure practicality. “Why did I put them on the back of my head? Because I didn’t have anywhere else to put them,” he said. “If I put them around my shirt at the restaurant, they’d fall into food. So I just put them on the back of my head.”