Discover the secrets behind some of fashion’s most interesting labels. There’s no shortage of fascinating stories in fashion, but we’ve delved into the archives for a deeper look at 3 enduring labels and how they originally created the pieces that our community most want today.
Created by Karl Lagerfeld (of course) in 1965, the double-F Fendi logo is an enduring status symbol, but legendarily it only took Karl 5 seconds to sketch. While the FF originally stoff for ‘Fun Fur’, today the logo is found across everything from bucket hats to Baguette bags and retains a certain cachet thanks to a trend for logomania.
When his label began in 1989, Martin Margiela ushered out the ubiquitous ‘80s power shoulder. Along with his Antwerp Six contemporaries (bonus points if you can name them all!), he reinvented old materials, reimagined proportions, and flipped established ideas inside out - literally, in the case of seams and linings.
When she entered her family’s leather goods house in 1978, Miuccia Prada had dreams of radically reinventing it. A waterproof nylon resembling silk was created around the same time, and Miuccia employed this to make a backpack, the Vela in 1984. It was a smash hit, and Prada has used the material on bags ever since.