Logos in 2016: Style and substance

A few weeks ago I went on a quest: I wanted a ‘90s-looking Calvin Klein logo sweatshirt because I’m a grown woman and I do what I want. But more specifically, unlike my tween self in the 1990s (see: CK’s logo heyday) I now have a job, know how to actually budget, and I don’t buy clothes so that so-and-so will invite me to have lunch with the cool kids (though I would still probably RSVP yes). I wanted a Calvin Klein logo sweatshirt because I wanted to wear one. You know: just like everybody else.

Tommy Hilfiger

With the launch of Tommy Hilfiger’s new Tommy line – an homage to Tommy Hilfiger’s mid-’90s to early ‘00s heyday – we’ve proven our dedication to wearing our hearts (or brands) on our literal sleeves. We drape ourselves in Adidas like it’s 1998, we thirst over Puma with the help of Kylie Jenner, and we not-so-discreetly announce our allegiance to designers and fashion houses with exposed waistbands or printed blouses.

Which smacks of “Look at me! Look at me!” sentiment, I know. As tweens and teens in middle and high school, we used labels to simultaneously differentiate and also blend ourselves, using them to prove we had terrific taste (or at least the money to buy it) and that we could keep up with everybody else – which, for the majority of us, we didn’t, and we couldn’t. For many of us, GAP logo hoodies were the pinnacle of high fashion and taste, as we paraded our sweatshirts around hallways and schoolyards as proof of our parents’ dedication to our makeshift uniforms. Then, as the millennium took hold, Juicy Couture and Von Dutch dictated label-centric fashion norms among anyone with a part-time job, only to be replaced by Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister and Lululemon before petering out in the wake of hipster-centric, brand-free aesthetics, like American Apparel or vintage clothes – which some of us also used to elevate ourselves socially, the way we did with logos in middle school.

All hail the Juicy Couture velour tracksuit. (Photo by Jim Smeal/WireImage)

So anti-logos became the new logos which were used for the same purpose as logos: Aesthetic hierarchy. Fashion clout. Style savviness. (And short sentences consisting of two words for dramatic effect).

But the thing about growing up is that most of us have to make room for more important things instead of “wearing this T-shirt so somebody else thinks I’m cool.” Which means that we have no choice left but to begin dressing for ourselves and wearing only what we want to wear, bless us everyone. And it’s within that time we realize that maybe our tween and teen-centric style choices weren’t so bad, and that wearing old-school label shirts now are less about impressing randoms, and more about reclaiming the trends we were too young to fully appreciate.

Instagram/mirandakerr

When we buy Tommy or CK or Adidas (or any logo-anything) now, it’s an extension of our self-expression and who we want to be that day. We may like the brand, sure, but we also buy and wear them because they allude to a particular persona (like any clothes) or remind us of being kids or looking up to Cool Teens™ we wanted to emulate. When I was in middle and high school, I wore gifted GAP courtesy of my aunt, while the Adidas track pants I lived in my family scored at a Sears sale. Tommy came from my babysitting money exclusively, CK was impossible, and I owned two Levis T-shirts that were BOGO at Mark’s Work Wearhouse. I just wanted to be cool, and clothes were about attempting to wear enough proof that I was. I was in my mid-20s when I began picking pieces based on how they made me feel over how they’d be received by peers and strangers, so by 30 I felt confident going to the men’s section of The Bay, picking up a Calvin Klein crewneck sweatshirt and living my best teen (fantasy) life. Mainly because it wasn’t about levelling up or participating in capitalist hierarchy – this time, I’d watched a bunch of All Saints videos and remembered how great they dressed (reminding myself that maybe we had it all figured out in 1998, after all). This time, I was buying clothes for myself and not an invisible style jury, which made shopping so much more fun.

Which is why I think we’re seeing the logos of our youth celebrated in a way new mainstream logos aren’t. While it’s great to adorn yourself with Moschino or Louis Vuitton or whatever-else-brand you’re particularly into, we’re gravitating towards tried and true favourites currently because it’s a reclamation. Now, we don’t buy something if we don’t want it. Now, we buy for ourselves. Now, we dress the way we, as grown-ass women, choose to. Now, you don’t have to participated in brand name bingo if you’re not into a label or look. Or now, you can save for it and wear something that makes you feel powerful or great or hip or cool – whatever. Either way, breathe easy that no one will invite you to lunch (or not) depending on what you are or are not choosing to wear – unless they’re absolute freaks.

Also, wait for a sale before buying a Calvin Klein sweatshirt. We’re not made of money, people.