Readers familiar with The Princess and her ‘style aesthetic’ know how she detests logos. Absolutely. Positively. Loathes. Logos. On almost anything. Years of intensive counseling and continued outpatient therapy have made her more tolerant of the basic small (thumbnail size or less) image embroidered in the same color thread (we can’t stress the importance of this enough) as the product being logoed. For example, the Ralph Lauren Polo pony needs to be the same color as the polo shirt upon which it is being embroidered; she can cope with that. You know, w-a-a-a-y back in the dark ages this was generally the case for some of our more notable ‘preppy companies,’ like Brooks Brothers. The Brooks Golden Fleece was tastefully and discreetly used in a very low-key manner, visible only if you were in close physical proximity to, or actually wearing, the garment. Even Lilly Pulitzer originally hid her signature amongst the foliage in her lush tropical designs; it was always a treat to look for the secret letters, something akin to a treasure hunt as I recall. And Burberry plaid? Please. Don’t remind us. It was the lining for the coats. Period. Unlike the man’s “Exploded-Logo Polo” as seen at Neiman’s and shown below.
The Princess’s perspective does allow for a few exceptions to the ‘matching thread color issue’; most notably the LaCoste alligator. Why does it escape her ire? Well for openers, it was the original, created back in the 1930s. It’s been used for years and years and years, and it’s small, multi-color design could be deemed tasteful. Even today, as shown above, it remains in the background of the garment, allowing the focus to be the garment itself instead of vicea-versa. Imagine that. The little alligator did not secretly ingest Logo Steroids or Logo Growth Hormone and suddenly explode into an enormous beast as large as any garment would allow. Lacoste started the tradition, and then equally tasteful firms followed decades later, like Brooks and even Ralph Lauren Polo. Back then these designers did not send their refined little logos to the Logo Camp and say “Grow little logo, grow! Come back as big as Juicy Couture’s! Better yet, get infected with the LogoBird flu and spread yourself all over everything, everywhere! Be big-biggety-big like Versace, or Dolce & Gabbana!” No. They remained cool until relatively recently when things started to spiral out of control.
Let us gaze upon the hideous example of a logo gone bad up at the top of this post: the sequin Chanel logo (probably non-licensed) from an online purveyor of things. The seller writes: “Your little Fashionista will shine in this Chanel logo set in all clear crystal rhinestones!” Precisely what you would *not* want to see your toddler in, I don’t believe.
If you don’t trust The Princess on this topic, step back for a moment and ask yourself: would Babe Paley give a shower present of a Juicy Couture Gift Basket, proclaiming that the unborn child will be a Juicy Couture Baby, something that might be a bit of a surprise to the parents? Never. Happen. NeverEverNever. Do you see Grace Kelly wearing the Versace sunglasses seen above, so as to help the firm advertise their name? We think not.
Let us gaze upon the D&G Branded Tee for a youngster as seen above on the left, proclaiming “D&G Always for Memorable Brand.” Or consider having your pre-teen don the D&G Luxury Safari tee, also above, apparently notifying the world you have her living a “Luxury Safari.” How very nouveau gauche. And then we present one of our favorites: the Dolce & Gabbana Logo Cover-up in Junior sizes, shown below in white. This is perfect. If there must be a decorative element on the front of the Cover-up, why would one want it to say anything other than what it does, compliments of the good folks at Dolce & Gabbana. I don’t know what happened there for a moment, I must have been completely delusional. For a nanosecond I thought it might be more appropriate to actually put the child’s real name on the dress. Or, if we needed to save space, maybe just her initials in a nice monogram format instead of the message “D&G Junior.” But then we share the truly unbelievable offering: the D&G Onesie Logo Set at Neiman Marcus. It terrifies us. It leaves us speechless.
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If the question were asked which logo is the Most Preppy, yours truly would have a one-word response. None.
No logo at all is the Most Preppy.
PS: Do tune in tomorrow for Part Two. The Princess will take all her meds (heh-heh-heh) and then share thoughts on Logo size. Are the men currently wearing the larger logos a bit more Zegna & Brioni than Brooks Brothers and J Press? Tune in tomorrow to find out.
The Preppy Princess 