NY Times, Nov 7, 2018
WHAT GIVES THE LOGO ITS LEGS
Logomania is an obsession with no end in sight. Here’s why. By Ruth La Ferla
At a party last month, Gabriela Silvarolli embraced the full Fendi.
Ms. Silvarolli, a stylist and designer, was swathed from her chin to her calves in the company’s signature double FF logo. Her turnout was excessive, she knew.
“As recently as a year ago, you didn’t wear logos,” she said. “You had to be discreet."
But a glance at the crowd at Fendi’s Madison Avenue flagship — matrons, films stars and assorted style-world moguls tricked out in Fendi logo regalia — persuaded her otherwise. “Nowadays everything is allowed,” Ms. Silvarolli said. “Nothing is too much.”
Fendi is among the latest in a raft of luxury labels to advance the proposition that too much is never enough. Emboldened by the success of logo-ridden skate wear brands like Palace and Supreme, high-end labels including Prada, Balenciaga, Valentino and Chanel have joined the stampede, their monograms stamped on everything from hats to hosiery and, with a nod to the 1990s, the elastic bands of men’s skivvies.
It’s the trend that keeps going and going. This fall, fans of the hypebeast culture can choose from logo-embellished Balenciaga pullovers and embroidered Gucci slippers at Barneys New York, Off-White sweatshirts and camouflage jackets at Saks Fifth Avenue, and Vetements parkas at 10 Corso Como, the newly alighted Milanese purveyor of cooler-than-thou luxury wares in Lower Manhattan.
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