Is Beijing’s Logo-mania Obsession Chic or Crass?

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Summer shopping is here. The fancy discounts of 618, an annual shopping festival, just ended, and when the heat passes, there is back-to-school commerce.

While shopping, I discovered that the styles of others can inspire my own.

However, other than styling, there is another phenomenon. Take Beijing’s SKP for a case. It’s the city’s most high end luxury shopping center filled with stores like Dior, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and everyone who’s made a splash during Fashion Week.

During every big sale, the glass building swallows and spits out customers in Supreme tags, Louis Vuitton monograms, and fat jewels on various kinds of footwear. Many of these shoppers are obsessed with logos – designer or otherwise. It seems like more logos on a shirt, the better it sells, even if it doesn’t look as beautiful. This is called “logomania” in the fashion field and has been trending in Beijing.

So, why are monograms and oversized brand fonts so popular?

In an interview with Grace Li, a mother and aunt of two children who both attend Beijing City International School, she said that people dress to “belong in tribes.” If you wear Chanel suits, you might be an elegant grandmother, while Valentino studs make look you rock and roll. Has fashion become a tool that allows people to identify certain social groups they wish to belong in?

This is hardly a new phenomenon, but rather an inveterate instinct of humans. For example, primary yellow could only be worn by emperors in ancient China, red by wives and pink by concubines. In Scotland, kilts were worn by different clans. History shows that fashion has always been a symbol of social status and cultural identity. It is no surprise when many adults use designer logos to show wealth, or when teenagers mimic the logomania worn by fashionistas, believing it allows them to enter a stylish clique.

However, some shoppers are also subverting the social connotations of logomania. Grace herself despises logos. She even once considered scratching the metallic branding off a bag that she received as a gift since she could not return it. “Logomania is far from tasteful”, she said, because it is a “gaudy and mindless display” of materialism. Instead of refining wealth, it abuses it.”

On the other hand, Grace also wishes fashion could revert to its intrinsic core, which is being a “practical art piece” and an “aesthetic statement of self.” In a city driven by consumerism, this would also be sustainable and practical.

It is important to consider how clothes make you feel, just like paintings and poems, as art and beauty are subjective. Shop for your own unique aesthetic sensibilities instead of status symbols, logos, or brands. Quality over quantity, and timelessness over trends.

May clothes never lose their art. As Yves Saint Laurent once said, “fashion changes, but style is eternal.”

Do you think logomania is tasteless and tacky or is it just the latest style of our time? We would love to hear your thoughts, do comment down below!

Images: Unsplash, Uni You

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