Why It’s Time To Show Your Logos

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Why It’s Time To Show Your Logos

Words by Mr Ashley Clarke

23 February 2018

This season’s graphic trend has your name on it.

It used to be considered show-offy, even tasteless, to plaster a designer’s logo all over your outfit. Now, it would seem, that is no longer the case. Balenciaga has covered scarvesbags and shirts with its stark white logo, for example, and Gucci has embellished and printed its name onto dad sneakers and sukajan jackets. But it’s not just the high-end brands. MR PORTER is full of designers who appear to be quite pleased with themselves. What’s more, we rather like it.

If you want to get on board with this logos craze, the general rule is that you must wear them without it seeming like they are wearing you. Fortunately, this is easy right now because there is a slightly satirical edge to this trend. Logos are being modified, fonts and designs used at counterfeit markets have been reappropriated by the brands they were originally stolen from (see Gucci’s belt bag), and, like all the best bits of fashion, it’s rather fun. There’s much to read into. But don’t worry, we’ll refrain from writing any dissertations on the cultural implications of meta high-end fashion branding in late-stage capitalism. Try saying that after a few. Instead, you’ll have to settle with some eye-catching logo-heavy clothing that’s just landed on site. We’ve picked out our favourite examples below, and suggested how you might like to wear it. Aren’t we nice?

Mr Alessandro Michele, who this week showed his latest collection for Gucci by giving models baby dragons and their own severed heads to carry down the runway, knows how to get noticed. More than that, though, Mr Michele has a reputation for bringing fun back into fashion. This means the brand’s logo is fair game, and the designer has recently given a knowing wink to bootleg Gucci manufacturers by replicating their fake logo fonts, stamping sweaters with “Guccy” or T-shirts with “Guccification”, as above. Of course, this T-shirt is made in Italy, finished with an embroidered anchor on the reverse, and trimmed with striped webbing recalling similar T-shirt styles of the 1950s – there’s nothing naff about it. Wear it with some selvedge jeans and some sneakers – these, in the same red and navy colourway as the T-shirt, are worth getting excited over.

Back in October 2015, Mr Demna Gvasalia sent fellow designer Mr Gosha Rubchinskiy down a runway wearing something that quickly became the must-have fashion item of the season: a yellow DHL T-shirt. This, in many ways, could be credited with Vetements subsequent launch to the forefront of fashion’s consciousness, and inspired a plethora of think pieces about what made a brightly-coloured delivery T-shirt quite so covetable. Now, the brand has revived its collaboration with the courier company on another T-shirt, this time a spliced mix of jersey-cotton and pique in black, yellow and red. Let the bright colours pop out from underneath this Balenciaga jacket, itself a logomania marvel that caught attention for taking inspiration from Mr Bernie Sanders’ presidential election campaign typography.

Generally, brands that can generate appeal through their logos have been around for decades, but Off-White’s Mr Virgil Abloh has been able to stoke hype for his streetwear brand in just five short years. These Low 3.0 leather and canvas high-tops from Off-White are a good example – finished with a bright tag that reads “Sample”, the orange label on the front states the brand’s name and motto. The bright colour clashes with the deep blue details on the sides of the sneakers, too. They’ll look particularly fresh next to the brand’s bleached denim jeans, which are printed with white track-marks up the back of the legs, and have a black drawstring on the waist.