The History of Fashion’s Most Recognisable Brand Logos

Logos are the instantly recognisable trademarks that identify a piece of clothing’s maker. In turn, it’s no surprise that some of the world’s most popular fashion and sportswear brands also have the most recognisable logos. Here’s the story of some iconic labels and the logos that have become synonymous with them.

Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger founded his eponymous American brand in 1985, enlisting the creative powerhouse that was George Lois (whose CV includes designing 92 covers for Esquire magazine between 1962-72) to help launch the brand in a big way. And it couldn’t get much bigger than a massive billboard in New York’s Times Square, displaying the now iconic red and white flag with navy border logo. The central flag actually represents the letter H in the International Code of Symbols – but instead of its nautical communiqué, it now stands for Hilfiger (at least on shore). 

Calvin Klein
Another label named after its founder, Calvin Klein has been rendered in a number of variants over the years, but there is one common link: minimalism. Spelled out in its entirety, sans serif fonts have crisply branded – perhaps most prominently in recent times – the brand’s extremely popular underwear. Meanwhile, the logo is simply an initialised form of the name, which is believed to have been designed by Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein protégé Jeffrey Banks. In 1992, the all-caps were dropped for lower case to further accentuate the modern minimalist style.

Polo Ralph Lauren
Polo Ralph Lauren is arguably the most popular sub-label of Ralph Lauren’s beloved fashion house, and that’s likely thanks to its quite literal logo of a silhouetted polo player atop a horse. ‘To me, the polo player has elegance and imagination. It embodies sophisticated luxury and a timeless style,’ Lauren himself says about the logo. He actually created the logo in early 1971 in part for advertising a charity event, which he then refined to use on shirt cuffs before placing it on its spiritual garment home: the cotton pique polo shirt.