WHAT’S IN A NAME?
pocket. Traditional French fashion houses such as Chanel, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton have been huge marketers as well, in a quest to be at the top of those consumers’ minds.
In that era, the size of the logo grew, as well as the influence, from runway to off-the-rack. At London Fashion Week in 1996, Tommy Hilfiger famously dressed his models and rapper Treach (from thenprominent American hip-hop group Naughty by Nature) in giant logo T-shirts with the brand’s signature colors, making a big statement for the label, Hilfiger sales nearly hit US$500 million in 1996 — a huge jump from US$107 million in 1992.
Showing off logos became a key point in styling. When Calvin Klein launched its successful underwear campaigns in the early 1990s using topless, well-endowed male models such as Mark.
Wahlberg for its line of boxers, countless men (and certainly women, too) started to view the logo in a different light. Now it’s possible to see any type of person sporting a Calvin Klein band around their waist, whether it’s a Hollywood star, a plumber or your next-door neighbor.
Today, logos are prominent on the street — think the Nike swoosh, the Gucci double-G, the Chanel interlocking Cs, the Louis Vuitton monogram. Still others are turning to logo-less products, such as those by Japanese lifestyle brand Muji, whose name means “no-brand quality goods”. Either way, whether you love or hate logos, you can be secure that you’re not defined solely by what you wear.