“I think there’s this idea that you have to grow out of certain things, but I don’t really believe that’s the case,” the writer, curator, designer and model Jason Jules told MR PORTER earlier this year. “You just maybe need to change your approach a bit. I still love streetwear, trainers and even logos. You see a lot about not wearing logos, but I like them in the right setting. There are a lot of heritage products that do really interesting things with logos.”

Jules’ approach to the logo chimes with the fashion analyst @databutmakeitfashion, who, after crunching the numbers, recently reported on “the slow return of logos”. “Consumers are excited about engaging with fashion that’s a bit bolder and louder,” she noted. But this wasn’t just the era of quiet luxury tipping back towards one of more conspicuous semiotics. It’s that these two branches of designer trends were merging.

Among the pioneers of this intertwining of philosophies, she identified, rather aptly, Bottega Veneta, whose trademark intrecciato weave had itself evolved into a form of branding. Such details are “becoming a little less ‘if you know, you know’ than they once were,” argues Rachel O-Williams, Assistant Personal Shopper at MR PORTER. “As these signatures are more widely recognised, they can communicate much the same thing as an overt logo. The message is simply delivered with a lower volume setting.”

“In addition to overt logos, luxury fashion brands are also re-embracing items which have evolved into logos in and of themselves,” as @databutmakeitfashion had it. “A new kind of ‘logo’ was born.”

“A huge brand logo on a T-shirt used to feel a bit passé or even just straight up materialistic,” says Ashley Ogawa Clarke, a journalist working for Vogue who is based in Japan. “But I think now we’re at a place where if you like wearing a brand and want to show it, then go for it. We were post-logo, now we’re post-post-logo.”

“Logos aren’t going anywhere,” O-Williams says. “If anything, they’re becoming more relevant as vintage continues to shape the conversation. The resurgence of archival fashion has encouraged brands to revisit their greatest hits, so those signature motifs and house emblems feel less like marketing and more like heritage.” History repeats itself. And like the logos themselves, we’re back where we started.

So, how do you go about deploying a logo in 2026? “I’d let one logo-heavy piece do the talking,” O-Williams says. “If your Gucci jacket is making a statement, it doesn’t need competition from a monogrammed tee. That said, the rules soften when it comes to accessories as the scale is smaller and the effect is less overwhelming.”

“I think the best way to wear a logo is to do it with a tiny bit of decorum,” Ogawa Clarke says. “With the small silver logo tag on a pair of boots from Our Legacy, or the little Carhartt tag on the hem of a sweater. That way it still shares where you got something from if someone is interested enough to be looking closely, but not enough to shove it down their throat.”

For this reason, Ogawa Clarke suggests the more subtle brand signatures have been a style flex in Japan for some time. “These IYKYK details are popular as status signifiers because they do it without shouting.”

“These quieter brand codes are much easier to mix with more obvious logos because they don’t compete for attention in the same way,” O-Williams says. “It’s the difference between someone introducing themselves at a dinner party and someone arriving with a megaphone.”

Get the message right first. How you want to deliver it is up to you.