Animal House: Pet Logos Make a Fall Comeback
A zoo-load of animals were on the loose and prowling, motif-style, across crew necks and jackets on fall runways from Kenzo and Altuzarra to Prabal Gurung, Burberry, and Proenza Schouler. This isn’t the first time brands have adopted wildlife into their collections. Back in the early nineties, Hermès’s
horse and carriage, Polo Ralph Lauren’s pony, and Lacoste’s crocodile
roamed and skulked across polo shirts and tees setting one brand (or
breed) apart from another. And now these beastly distinctions offer
designers a playful approach to marking out their territory once more.
“It’s important to have something instantly recognizable,” believes Jason Wu, whose owl, named Ms. Wu, graces his accessories line. “It’s whimsical,” he shrugs. “And that carries over into the construction of the garments—I want there to be a lighthearted side as well.” Derek Lam, who uses a sculptural metal ram’s head (a nod to his astrological sign, Aries) to identify his bags and shoes, agrees: “I’m not a fan of making my name a noticeable element,” he shrugs. “The ram’s head is graphic and bold, but I like to think it’s discreetly conceptual, too; a clever wink rather than an in-your-face emblem of usual commercial branding.”
This recent migration on fall’s runways could arguably be traced back to Balenciaga and Givenchy’s pre-fall collections last year, when Nicolas Ghesquière unleashed a German shepherd, and Riccardo Tisci a growling Rottweiler onto sweaters. Then later that fall, Givenchy released a family of panthers to lurk on pencil skirts, jackets, and oversize sweaters. But Lam is quick to point out that animal logos, by way of astrological significance, were also embraced by Chanel and Anne Klein: “They both used a lion’s head to represent their work—they were Leos!”
Branding benefits aside, some designers put their usage down to nothing more than one-off inspirations. Proenza Schouler claimed a pheasant motif because, say designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, it added “something graphic and figurative to the mix.” Prabal Gurung, who featured a cow skull encased in a circle of foliage, admitted to being attracted to the mystery of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work, and Altuzarra who featured horses on an intarsia knit was merely mesmerized by Paul Goble’s illustrations that fitted with the “equestrian streak that went through the fall collection.”
But for their second season at the helm of Kenzo, designers Carol Lim and Humberto Leon reintroduced the storied house’s famed tiger motif to recapture some of that traditional sense of seventies animal magic: “It’s an iconic image for the brand; it symbolizes the strength of the jungle that Kenzo Takada introduced to Paris in 1969,” says Leon. “There’ll be other friends joining in the seasons to come,” he promises. “The tiger motif is just the beginning.”
CLICK to see slideshow!!
“It’s important to have something instantly recognizable,” believes Jason Wu, whose owl, named Ms. Wu, graces his accessories line. “It’s whimsical,” he shrugs. “And that carries over into the construction of the garments—I want there to be a lighthearted side as well.” Derek Lam, who uses a sculptural metal ram’s head (a nod to his astrological sign, Aries) to identify his bags and shoes, agrees: “I’m not a fan of making my name a noticeable element,” he shrugs. “The ram’s head is graphic and bold, but I like to think it’s discreetly conceptual, too; a clever wink rather than an in-your-face emblem of usual commercial branding.”
This recent migration on fall’s runways could arguably be traced back to Balenciaga and Givenchy’s pre-fall collections last year, when Nicolas Ghesquière unleashed a German shepherd, and Riccardo Tisci a growling Rottweiler onto sweaters. Then later that fall, Givenchy released a family of panthers to lurk on pencil skirts, jackets, and oversize sweaters. But Lam is quick to point out that animal logos, by way of astrological significance, were also embraced by Chanel and Anne Klein: “They both used a lion’s head to represent their work—they were Leos!”
Branding benefits aside, some designers put their usage down to nothing more than one-off inspirations. Proenza Schouler claimed a pheasant motif because, say designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, it added “something graphic and figurative to the mix.” Prabal Gurung, who featured a cow skull encased in a circle of foliage, admitted to being attracted to the mystery of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work, and Altuzarra who featured horses on an intarsia knit was merely mesmerized by Paul Goble’s illustrations that fitted with the “equestrian streak that went through the fall collection.”
But for their second season at the helm of Kenzo, designers Carol Lim and Humberto Leon reintroduced the storied house’s famed tiger motif to recapture some of that traditional sense of seventies animal magic: “It’s an iconic image for the brand; it symbolizes the strength of the jungle that Kenzo Takada introduced to Paris in 1969,” says Leon. “There’ll be other friends joining in the seasons to come,” he promises. “The tiger motif is just the beginning.”
CLICK to see slideshow!!
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