After years in the fashion wilderness, the look-at-me logo is back. Whether it’s on sweatshirts, T-shirts or bags, designers have rediscovered the guilt-free way for consumers to indulge in their fetish for brands: irony, and lots of it.
“The return of logos, especially those used in an ironic manner, makes sense right now,” says Dana Thomas, author of the book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre. “Young creators, in music as well as in fashion, are turning to the 1980s for inspiration and that was the period when logo mania first hit hard . . . The new take on logos is more romantic, softer, and even humorous – it has all been filtered through the haze of time. We’re all a bit more jaded, a bit more wise. We bought into marketing then; we mock it today.”
American designer Alexander Wang has been at the forefront of this new logo wave, lasercutting his name into leather dresses, T-shirts and skirts for his spring collection. The DKNY collection featured its name in bold repeat on tracksuits, skirts, sweaters and anoraks. Then there was Marc Jacobs’ swansong collection for Louis Vuitton, which opened with model Edie Campbell painted with Stephen Sprouse-designed Vuitton lettering. London Fashion Week designer Nasir Mazhar’s first collection, for autumn/winter 2014, used clothes inspired by the 1990s group TLC and covered in his name. And for the past four seasons Kenzo has applied its name and tiger motif to sweaters, caps, bags and wallets – and the fashion crowd love it.