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The Return of the Logo

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  • Ahimsa
    Vegan Police
    • Sep 2011
    • 1879

    The Return of the Logo

    by Eugene Rabkin

    "If this past menswear season showed anything it was that the logo, that constant companion of fashion that periodically goes in and out of style, is now firmly back. The Balenciaga show was a parade of mega-sized logos. At Junya Watanabe the North Face collaboration pieces featured logos as large as half a torso. There were also plenty of logos at the two perennial favorites of the current generation of fashion victims – Vetements and Gosha Rubchinskiy. And of course the much-talked-about collaboration of Supreme and Louis Vuitton was all about the logo.

    What is a logo and what is its purpose in fashion? First and foremost, a logo is a symbol. In fashion a logo is mostly a status symbol, the most direct and often the crudest way to broadcast to others what you are about. It used to be that the logo signaled purely monetary status – I can afford, there for I am. It was mainly the provenance of the arrivistes to signal that they, well, have arrived; that they are now able to spend money on certain things. This is why logomania was particularly aggressive in the greedy 80s. In the 90s, the fashion audience seemed to mature. Logos became to be seen as vulgar, a prime example of the ostentatious, dumb and loud fashion of the previous decade. The consumer was now more sophisticated and elegant.

    The logo, of course, never went away completely. There were the Helmut Lang t-shirts with his name on the back. Originally created for Lang’s fashion-show crews, eventually, in an ironic gesture, they migrated onto the backs of his devoted followers (I still have one, black on black, so you have to squint to see it).

    And, of course there was the pinnacle of the logo for the cognoscenti, Martin Margiela’s four white stitches, that held the blank white label inside. Margiela meant for these to be cut off with the label after a purchase, but in one of the great fashion’s moments of misunderstanding, they had become the secret handshake of the artists, gallerists, architects, or simply people with understated taste, who nevertheless wanted to carefully signal it to the select few who were in the know. This was particularly relevant for men, because Margiela’s garments looked fairly basic at a first glance. They required a much closer look in order to see their ingenious construction, but who had time for that?"

    Read the rest of the article on SZ-MAG
    StyleZeitgeist Magazine | Store
  • goldsamxo
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2017
    • 163

    #2
    Great article (like always Eugene)! Love the editorials, for they always hold a back-door open to the fashion world, unlike many publications who will just write highest of praise.
    Originally Posted by Latoya Sizemore View Post

    It would be great if one cane wear little bit loose T-shirts with some great prints like marijuana leaves, cannabis, weeds etc.
    Most of the youngsters will like to wear fashionable and chill clothing, which give a great looks to youngsters.

    Comment

    • Faust
      kitsch killer
      • Sep 2006
      • 37852

      #3
      Thank you!
      Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

      StyleZeitgeist Magazine

      Comment

      • jap808
        Senior Member
        • Dec 2012
        • 377

        #4
        Originally posted by goldsamxo View Post
        Great article (like always Eugene)! Love the editorials, for they always hold a back-door open to the fashion world, unlike many publications who will just write highest of praise.
        Agree: love to read this articles.

        And could it be that BBS "tag" is the new Margiela's four white stiches?

        Comment

        • goldsamxo
          Senior Member
          • Jan 2017
          • 163

          #5
          Originally posted by jap808 View Post
          Agree: love to read this articles.

          And could it be that BBS "tag" is the new Margiela's four white stiches?
          That's precisely what I've been feeling for a while. I don't mind it at all, I like the aesthetic look of that 'tag'.
          Originally Posted by Latoya Sizemore View Post

          It would be great if one cane wear little bit loose T-shirts with some great prints like marijuana leaves, cannabis, weeds etc.
          Most of the youngsters will like to wear fashionable and chill clothing, which give a great looks to youngsters.

          Comment

          • Faust
            kitsch killer
            • Sep 2006
            • 37852

            #6
            Originally posted by jap808 View Post
            Agree: love to read this articles.

            And could it be that BBS "tag" is the new Margiela's four white stiches?
            Could be for our set. But BBS is not Margiela in the big scheme of things.
            Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

            StyleZeitgeist Magazine

            Comment

            • mrbeuys
              Senior Member
              • May 2008
              • 2313

              #7
              Originally posted by jap808 View Post
              And could it be that BBS "tag" is the new Margiela's four white stiches?
              Don't think you need the tag to identify as BBS on most pieces. With Margiela it was much more about subtlety.
              Hi. I like your necklace. - It's actually a rape whistle, but the whistle part fell off.

              Comment

              • mamooon
                Member
                • Jun 2015
                • 62

                #8
                What a good read, very interesting, thanks a lot for sharing!

                Comment

                • zen dog
                  Senior Member
                  • Jan 2014
                  • 212

                  #9
                  Faust,
                  Just because BBS's audience is smaller than the big houses, does that really give him a pass from this kind of scrutiny? Said by someone who respects and owns his work.

                  Also, from large words and phrases emblazoned across shirts and coats, rectangular photos on t-shirts (that I really have to work on to not think of iron-on sheets from maybe the '70's) and Yohji's notes almost to himself, hasn't fashion paved the way for this? (Yohji, the master, usually pulls it off, raises it to the next level).

                  "Logos became to be seen as vulgar, a prime example of the ostentatious, dumb and loud fashion of the previous decade. The consumer was now more sophisticated and elegant."

                  The consumer is more sophisticated (can't say elegant) and confident to wear parts of/ideas from their landscape. Fashion houses are part of their landscape and yes, with irony, folding themselves into that landscape, as your images illustrate. Vetements' DHL t-shirt sales were both perplexing and amazing. Looking like a giveaway- "the first 50 customers who start an account get a free t-shirt!", it wears as low fashion with the blessing, reassurance of the brand. Dress it up with expensive pants and tennis shoes, dress it down with oil and gravy stains.

                  It is probably my negative assessment of fashion's grotesque 80's logo-ing, but I see fashion trying to have it both ways- admitting they are vulgar and loud in exchange for selling product because you are in on the joke. So, I agree that they are obviously doing a good job of selling irony and actually I hope that is true. The alternative is their buying audience is so far gone they just like the prestige of it. The 80's happened before most of them were born in the late '80s of after. I doubt much study went in to these purchases. Those who do not remember the past are condemned to rewear it.

                  Comment

                  • Faust
                    kitsch killer
                    • Sep 2006
                    • 37852

                    #10
                    Originally posted by zen dog View Post
                    Faust,
                    Just because BBS's audience is smaller than the big houses, does that really give him a pass from this kind of scrutiny? Said by someone who respects and owns his work.
                    Not giving Boris a pass at all. Simply saying that in the large scheme of things that this particular article is concerned with he does not really play a role. Nothing wrong with that, obviously, but Boris is not a part of the fashion conversation... yet.

                    Also, from large words and phrases emblazoned across shirts and coats, rectangular photos on t-shirts (that I really have to work on to not think of iron-on sheets from maybe the '70's) and Yohji's notes almost to himself, hasn't fashion paved the way for this? (Yohji, the master, usually pulls it off, raises it to the next level).
                    Not sure what you mean here. I am talking about fashion.


                    "Logos became to be seen as vulgar, a prime example of the ostentatious, dumb and loud fashion of the previous decade. The consumer was now more sophisticated and elegant."

                    The consumer is more sophisticated (can't say elegant) and confident to wear parts of/ideas from their landscape. Fashion houses are part of their landscape and yes, with irony, folding themselves into that landscape, as your images illustrate. Vetements' DHL t-shirt sales were both perplexing and amazing. Looking like a giveaway- "the first 50 customers who start an account get a free t-shirt!", it wears as low fashion with the blessing, reassurance of the brand. Dress it up with expensive pants and tennis shoes, dress it down with oil and gravy stains.
                    I said "was" and you are saying "is." That quote was about the fashion consumer of the 90s.

                    It is probably my negative assessment of fashion's grotesque 80's logo-ing, but I see fashion trying to have it both ways- admitting they are vulgar and loud in exchange for selling product because you are in on the joke. So, I agree that they are obviously doing a good job of selling irony and actually I hope that is true. The alternative is their buying audience is so far gone they just like the prestige of it. The 80's happened before most of them were born in the late '80s of after. I doubt much study went in to these purchases. Those who do not remember the past are condemned to rewear it.
                    Agreed.
                    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                    StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                    Comment

                    • zen dog
                      Senior Member
                      • Jan 2014
                      • 212

                      #11
                      Thanks for your response, Faust

                      I probably wasn't clear. As you said, logos in the '90s were seen as vulgar by the sophisticated- I was extending it to the present. My point was that sophistication has manifested itself as logos now- with an all too brief mention of its progression to this point. Sophistication being defined as going beyond now staid elegance (the big houses selling both- amazing)and impervious to the previously attached vulgarity that logos previously conveyed.

                      If needed, I'll try to elaborate- I had no idea how rusty these neural pathways of mine were.

                      Comment

                      • Faust
                        kitsch killer
                        • Sep 2006
                        • 37852

                        #12
                        I think I see what you are saying - that the insiders are now using logos in a campy, ironic way. I think I tried to get that across.
                        Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                        StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                        Comment

                        • DudleyGray
                          Senior Member
                          • Jul 2013
                          • 1143

                          #13
                          Originally posted by zen dog View Post
                          Thanks for your response, Faust

                          I probably wasn't clear. As you said, logos in the '90s were seen as vulgar by the sophisticated- I was extending it to the present. My point was that sophistication has manifested itself as logos now- with an all too brief mention of its progression to this point. Sophistication being defined as going beyond now staid elegance (the big houses selling both- amazing)and impervious to the previously attached vulgarity that logos previously conveyed.

                          If needed, I'll try to elaborate- I had no idea how rusty these neural pathways of mine were.
                          If I'm reading this correctly, then I'd say that the progression of logo use doesn't really matter, that it is incorrigably unsophisticated. I don't think I'm disagreeing with anything that's been posted in this regard but simply expounding on some vague thoughts I'd had since reading this article/thread.

                          From what I can see in fashion, of all the things like shape, materials, detail, color (blech), construction, this shift in emphasis towards hyperaware iconography doesn't seem to have any different end result than that of the unaware 90s, no matter how much the houses and consumers scream "Ha ha! We get it!" as alluded to by the conclusion of the article. I don't see the logos as presented as serving any function except semiotics, regardless of temporal context. As semiotics is already inherent in all other aspects of fashion design, logos then seem superfluous in addition to overly explicit. And really, I'm not feeling the ironic aspect of the current use, as irony/sarcasm is too often a poor substitute for wit or a way to skirt insecurities.
                          bandcamp | facebook | youtube

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