Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Are You Over Designer Parody Products?

05  Cassie's Hugo's Restaurant Brian Lichtenberg Homies White Black Graffiti Sweatshirt
It started out as a good idea.
Take designer logos, turn them on their heads with clever wordplay and imagery, plaster the end result on t-shirts, hoodies, and beanies; sell, rinse, repeat. The results were quickly embraced by the celeb set, street style stars, and even some high fashion designers. Soon, it seemed as if everyone was rocking a Bucci tank or Giraunchy tee.

  conflict of interest givenchy giraunchy t-shirt
The first parody logo I can remember was SSUR’s  ”Comme des F**kdown” snapbacks. Soon after those hit the market, other designers took the concept and ran with it. Before long we were inundated with products replacing the Hermès horse and buggy logo with a tricked out truck flanked by three “Homiès,”  decrying the rebranding of Yves Saint Laurent’s label, and every kind of “Ballin’” wordplay in the book.

 brandy album release party comme des fuckdown sur empire shirt
Indeed, consumers with a taste for irony lapped up these products, and it looks like the designer parody business is still going strong. But I wonder, has the theme been exhausted? With everyone trying to put their own twist on the trend, has it in itself become a Hotmès?

 hotmes t shirt
I was all for designer parodies at first, and to date, there are some indie labels that are still creating cool versions of their now-classic styles, like Conflict of Interest. But really–how many different parody labels do we need? At this stage, it seems as if the point has been made, and the horse has long been dead, buried, and decomposed.

 benzo-bronx-t-shirt
But that could just be my opinion. What do you think? Are you over the designer parody trend? Or are you still into it?

 olivier rousteing ballin brian lichtenbergbadman paris snapback hat

No comments:

Post a Comment