Louis Vuitton 

Damier 

The first signature canvas to come from the French fashion house was Damier. It was crafted in 1888 and is therefor older than the iconic monogram coated canvas. The Damier features a checkerboard pattern – Damier means checkerboard in French. Some of the tiles have the ‘marque L. Vuitton déposéé’ written on them, which is Louis Vuitton’s first registered trademark, in order to deter imitations. 

The checkerboard pattern was first released in dark and light brown and then in red and white. The red and white combination was only released for a limited time, so it’s a highly coveted combination today. Later it was also launched in brown and beige. 

The pattern was reintroduced as Damier Ebène in 1998 and it’s still a house classic today. It’s still a brown and beige checkerboard pattern, but now it’s printed on black canvas as opposed to being hand painted. 

Coated canvas 

Another well known pattern from Louis Vuitton is the coated canvas, also known as the LV monogram. It was created by Georges Vuitton in 1896 in an effort to make it harder to copy Louis Vuitton pieces. It consists of the Louis Vuitton logo, circles, quatrefoils and flowers. It was created in the classic brown and beige color way but it’s been interpreted and has had many different colors since 1896. 

If you want to read more about the history of Louis Vuitton and the materials they use when making their luxurious bags, have a look at our full Louis Vuitton Bible HERE. 

Dior

Oblique

The well known Oblique pattern from Dior was created in 1967 by Marc Bohan. Marc Bohan is well known for his 30 years as Creative Director for Dior – he was with the brand from 1961 to 1989! – and is behind many iconic Dior collections. The pattern is named after Christian Dior’s F/W 1951 collection and the first bag with the pattern hit the runway as part of the haute couture collection in 1967. 

The print was so popular that the brand decided to decorate their entire Dior Monsieur boutique in Paris with it in 1974. 

The logo trend took over the runways in the 2000s as John Galliano took over Dior. He put his own touch on the now iconic print and put it on his streetwear pieces. 

Maria Grazia Chiuri took over as Creative Director for Dior in 2016 and ventured out on a journey to go through the archives and revamp the best classic styles – the Saddle bag for one!

Fendi

The double F’s, the FF logo, the Zucca – Fendi’s logo has many names! It actually stands for ‘fun fur’ and has nothing to do with the name Fendi, but it works anyway. 

After being hired as a freelancer in the Fendi fur department in 1965, Karl Lagerfeld came up with the iconic logo in five seconds. The logo was made to decorate the lining inside Fendi’s fur coats in order to make them more playful. Lagerfeld was hired in the hopes that he could refresh the fur department with a more contemporary look and this was one way to do just that. 

The Zucca logo catapulted the Fendi brand to new heights especially in the 1980s and 1990s and once again when logo mania took off again in 2018. Today the print is used on bags, clothes, shoes and various accessories. 

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Gucci

Diamante canvas

In the mid 1930’s Gucci switched from making only leather bags and instead began to use a woven hemp from Naples. This was caused by Mussolini’s alliance with Nazi Germany and his order to invade Ethiopia, as the League of Nations imposed multiple trade embargos on Italy, meaning that there was a shortage of leather in Italy. This meant that the Italian fashion house was left with a dilemma – either adapt and start using other materials or close shop. 

Today the specially woven hemp is known as Diamante and is Gucci’s first signature print. It has small dots that form interconnected diamond shapes. Today all four points of each diamond has a ‘GG’, but this wasn’t added to the print until 1961 when the GG logo was created. 

Diamante was originally only available in a beige and brown color way but has since its origin been released in a variety of shades. 

Flora 

Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco bought a green Bamboo bag in Milan in 1966. To say thank you for shopping with Gucci, Rodolfo Gucci decided that she could pick anything from the store as a gift. She chose a scarf, but Rodolfo didn’t think any of the scarves in the store were suitable for someone like the princess. He therefore commissioned Vittorio Accornero, an Italian illustrator, to design a scarf especially for her. 

This is how the Flora print came about. It features 43 different types of flowers, plants and insects in no less than 37 colors. 

It was reintroduced by Frida Giannini in 2005 when she was the Creative Director of accessories. It began being used on bags, shoes and small leather goods and quickly became synonymous with the Italian brand.

Gucci is well known for other motifs which don’t necessarily fit into the logo mania trend but that still make you recognize the brand instantly. If you want to read more about their horse bit, bamboo or web, read the full Gucci bible HERE. 

A lot of brands have interesting logos – this is just a short selection of some of the most prominent logos you’ll see when you browse our selection of logomania pieces.