Gilmore Girls merch has colonised autumn. We investigate why the pyjamas arrive in August, who is actually profiting, and whether owning a Luke’s Diner mug makes you tacky. It is the first week of August. The sun is still out, nobody has thought about a coat, and yet the shops have already filled up with burgundy pyjamas printed with pictures of a fictional gazebo in Connecticut.

There is a strange, specific kind of nostalgia gripping modern audiences: a collective ache for a cinematic era many of us barely lived through. Scroll through social media today and you will not find viral edits of the latest streaming romantic comedy. You will find a loop of Heath Ledger dancing across concrete bleachers, Alicia Silverstone spinning in a yellow plaid skirt, Jennifer Garner sobbing over a pink plastic dollhouse.