Ria Wolstenholme looks at one of the season's biggest trends
Trends in fashion have a tendency to recycle themselves. The bold block colour brights, matching mustard yellow suits and pat butcher earrings of the 80s are back this year, along with the garish and athleisure bum bags, cycling shorts, and wearing your boyfriend’s baggy tees from the 90s. The fashion world has seen a major comeback of styles from way back when, both on the catwalk and the high-street, but one of the biggest and glaringly obvious comebacks is logos.
SS18 saw the most basic of items making waves on the runway from, graphic tees at Paco Rabanne to bicycle shorts from Alexander Wang and Off-White. The infamous Gucci logo graphic tee took over as the SS17 social media uniform, prompting many brands and high street retailers to follow suit and release their own versions.
If you’ve managed to scroll through Instagram and not see a girl or guy with that leather and gold Gucci belt round their waist, then congratulations on having a unique feed. The Instagram influencer generation has taken fashion back to the ‘look what I have, and I want you to know about it’ style of owning and wearing designer items, rather than the classier option of knowing you’re stepping out in Chanel without having to let everyone know you can afford a £4,000 coat.
Designer brands like Chanel, Gucci, Fendi, Dior, Chloe, Balmain, Balenciaga, just to name a few, have all become brands that are no longer reserved for the elite. You don’t have to walk into a flagship store and browse with a personal shopper with a glass of champagne to afford high fashion; you can order it online, and have it delivered in a shiny black ribbon tied box.
You don’t have to be a high-end earner anymore either - I saw a 16-year-old walking through Tesco in Balenciaga slides the other day, and my 21-year-old empty bank account jealously growled at her. My point is, the over use of logos in designing has led to a lot of items looking the same, being easily accessible or genuinely not recognisable as a designer item. The flare and luxury of the items has lost its spark. For example, the £696 Marmont Gucci bum bag is so simplistic in its design, with only the Gucci logo and quilted leather fabric being its stand out features, that you can get a near exact copy from online retailer Boohoo for £20.
So what’s the reasoning behind it? Have logos made a comeback in order for designer brands to boost sales and attract a new, younger market, or is it an attempt to push their classic brand and make sure if their product is worn, everyone knows about it?
It’s not just designers bringing back the trend of using their logos and emblems as the main focus of design. Sports brands like Nike and Adidas have brought back capsule collections from some of their infamous pieces, such as Adidas’ originals collection, spanning over shoes, dresses, tops, trousers and alike that were staple pieces of street wear in the 80s and 90s and are now highly sought after. They rebranded themselves by making their logo and brand the main event; it was no longer just a sports brand, they reformed into something iconic.
So, maybe that’s what the high fashion houses are doing. Perhaps this push to brand and over logo items is an attempt to get the big names out there again. It’s a way to send a message, that fast fashion may be more accessible and affordable than ever; but the classics will never die, no matter what.
