When you’re invited on a holiday co-hosted by Net-a-Porter and Aquazzura, the shoe brand that counts fashion royalty (Amal Clooney and Meghan Markle) as part of its fan club, you know the vistas are going to be worthy of a scene in The Five-Star Weekend (this summer’s Big Little Lies). What your imagination might not have dared to stretch to, however, is a level of detail that encompasses logoed coconuts (their skins quite literally etched with “Aquazzura Net-a-Porter”), as well as a pair of boats moored just off the beach, their sails blowing in the wind and emblazoned accordingly. I would say day-trippers won’t have seen anything quite like it in Port Pierre Canto, Cannes, but that overlooks the fact that branding is back in fashion.
Nowhere was this more evident than at Men’s Fashion Month. Singapore-based photographer Su Shan Leong was there to capture this wave of logomania, a trend whose origins can be traced to Dapper Dan (Harlem designer, Gucci collaborator and something of a logo mixologist). “One trend that was impossible to miss this season in Milan and Paris: athletic jerseys and bold logos,” she tells Who What Wear UK. “With the World Cup season in full swing, people proudly wore their national team jerseys, whilst brands like Willy Chavarria also stood out, reflecting the growing influence of sports culture and statement logos on everyday street style.”
There was no second-guessing who was about to show on 28 June, with one logo repeating as crowds gathered: Celine’s. Some were subtle (the first letter of the brand’s name scattered across a silk scarf, for example) and some the opposite (a clutch bag the colour and shape of a gold bar, “Celine” embossed onto its length in raised capitals). The house’s famously hard-to-buy belt—which features a disc of either metal or calfskin logoed with “Maison Celine à Paris; Hotel Colbert de Torcy; 16 rue Vivienne, Arr. 2”, a reference to its historic Parisian HQ—already has the cult status of a handbag and has been spotted on Naomi Watts. Next to sell out will be its just-seen sneakers. “Even quiet luxury still embraces logomania; just look at Michael Rider’s new Celine Reebok collab,” says eBay’s pre-loved style director Amy Bannerman. “The trainers will retail for around £800, and that is mainly down to the tiny Celine label sewn onto the tongue. If that isn’t logomania, I don’t know what is,” she says, noting that logo tees have been flying on eBay.
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