It takes a lot to impress shoppers these days. No one really gives a damn about an It bag or an It shoe, unless, of course, it’s been categorized as “ugly” or Rihanna posted a selfie wearing one. This year, instead of obsessing over a single sell-out piece, consumers were much more focused on collectsible, logo-covered high-low items. Balenciaga and Gucci are leading this phenomenon, as was pointed out in Vogue’s Fashion News Director Mark Holgate’s story about the best-selling clothes and accessories of the year, but there was a huge amount of fun and quirky merchandise from labels like Christian Dior, Valentino, Dolce & Gabbana, Céline, and Saint Laurent, too.
Karl Lagerfeld was one of the original designers to play with the idea of luxury fashion objects at Chanel, stamping the double-C logo onto water bottles, surfboards, tennis rackets, and many other everyday objects. It’s not like there were millions of people clamoring to buy sports equipment with a four-digit price tag attached, but it certainly did a lot to market Chanel to a wider audience. These sorts of projects act as more of a promotional push than a profit-driving strategy, and the releases we’ve seen this year did plenty to promote aspirational ready-to-wear brands. Earlier this month there was the release of Dior Homme’s BMX bike, and just before that Dolce & Gabbana released pastas (they also have a line of refrigerators with Smeg, so you can have an entire Italian-themed kitchen if that’s what your heart desires). There was a VLTN basketball and VLTN logo tees. And Saint Laurent teamed up with Colette to release an exclusive line of collectsables that includes a logo skateboard, a Polaroid camera, a Vespa, and a leather sex paddle. The clothes and accessories of these historic fashion houses remain paramount for the time being, but at a moment when our attention spans are shorter than ever, there’s ingenuity in taking the label from an exquisite dress and putting it on a sex toy or a box of rigatoni.