Logomania is the fashion for wearing brand names and monograms large, repeated and impossible to miss, on belts, bags, scarves and entire tracksuits. It goes in and out of style about as often as minimalism does, and every return is greeted as a scandal.
The most famous monogram of all began as security rather than showing off. In 1896 Georges Vuitton, son of the founder Louis, designed the LV canvas, patented the following year. The firm’s earlier striped and checked canvases had been copied far and wide, so the interlaced initials and flowers were meant to prove that a trunk was genuine. The floral motifs were apparently inspired by tiles in the family house at Asnières-sur-Seine. As an anti-copying device it was not a total success: the pattern went on to become one of the most counterfeited in the world, and artists such as Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama and Jeff Koons were later invited to reinvent it.