Forget cocktail dresses and crocodile “It bags” – among key style trends now are T-shirts that wouldn’t look out of place on a market stall.
Earlier this month the buzzy catwalk brand Balenciaga released its spring/summer advertising campaign. The key reference point? Not the rarified inspiration that could be expected for such a storied fashion house but a humble carrier bag for German supermarket chain Edeka. The yellow and blue colours of the store’s branding was reworked with the phrase “The Power of Dreams” and a Balenciaga logo.
This is just the latest example of the trend for fashion labels to use existing branding in their designs to make something that has the look of a bootleg. Balenciaga designer Demna Gvasalia has advocated this idea, first with his own brand Vetements. The label produced a much-discussed T-shirt in 2016 with the DHL logo on it which sold for £185. Gvasalia followed it up this year with a $2,150 (£1,606) bag for Balenciaga that looked remarkably like Ikea’s 50p Frakta bag.
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