Will fashion mega-collaborations bring logomania back? Fendace is just the beginning
Yesterday at Milan Fashion Week we witnessed an experiment of how we do not see it every year: the collaboration/designer swap between Versace and Fendi. The main vehicle of this dialogue was the logo, or rather the two logos, in whose merger most of this collaboration or swap was resolved. The logo was also the main and most explicit vehicle through which the hacking between Gucci and Balenciaga a few months ago was expressed – making us think both of the beginning of a next increase in these mega-collaborations between the titans of the industry and of a return of the logomania that was thought to have vanished along with the streetwear wave seen in recent years. This link with streetwear plays an important role because there is a big difference between the luxe-streetwear collaborations of the past and the recent mega-collaborations between fashion brands. So much so that, during the lockdown, a trend of basics had developed, of minimal luxury along the lines of Phoebe Philo's Celine, with brands such as The Row, Bottega Veneta, Peter Do, which, at the end of the lockdown, has seen the rise of revenge fashion - a trend that wants to makes us forget of the year we spent in our pajamas with bold, showy and, ultimately, hedonist looks.
Both "Fendace" and "Gucciaga", as well as the other mega-collaborations that we will see in the future, finally fall into the macro-trend of dopamine dressing explained on the pages of GQ by the psychologist and author Dawnn Karen as «selecting clothes that increase your happiness, raise your spirits, and make you feel better, stronger, safer, or more empowered». A type of sensation that, while possessing its subjective aspects, can only be entrusted to the most immediate and visible symbols and signifiers of fashion, logos, but also by bright colors, provocative and sensual designs and a general visual hedonism of which Fendace, yesterday, was one of the most powerful and relevant expressions.
