Pictured: Maison Margiela's signature "four stitch" logo, seen on the back of a jacket

The key reason may be simply hiding in plain sight. It’s often been said that Brunello Cucinelli is the tech world’s favorite designer, his luxurious take on basics acting as the perfect garment for those who want to feel as wealthy as they are, but not necessarily show it. The small logo is the natural extension of this line of thinking, although the reasons why people like the smaller motif isn’t that different from why they like the larger one.

For author, professor and lecturer Michael R. Solomon, the reason in general is one of classic belonging. Speaking to Dry Clean Only, he noted, “There’s nothing new about it.” going on to add that, “the easiest explanation, of course, is status, being connected to a well known designer. And in some cases, it's a way of showing that you're able to afford that particular item.” The secret handshake effect tends to be the same regardless of the size of the logo, but what does change is the size of the megaphone through which you display your allegiances.

If there’s one thing buyers want to do, it’s show their allegiance. “People are often willing to pay a premium for the same product, that that has a logo versus one that doesn't,” says Solomon. “In some cases, they may even literally be the same garment.” So, with this knowledge in mind, it’s easy to see why a brand may be rushing to find their own version of a timeless logo as it’s essentially a way to create a whole host of goods that are that much more desirable to the consumer because of the logo’s cachet. It’s the reason why you’re now seeing luxury designer brands creating hoodies emblazoned with their own logo in what is a transparent method to ape the “Supreme effect”—people coveting a brand’s logo so much they’ll queue for it—for their own label.

For the logos themselves, there’s a wide range of designs but one common thread. “Simplicity always wins,” says Titchener. “This is true in examples such as Maison Margiela's four tailors tacks, Rick Owens' two vertical stripes, Chanel’s crossed C’s, Stone Island's compass or Levi’s red tab.”

On the brand side, the issue comes when they try to focus on the logo’s design rather than the actual original garments, which builds the cachet that makes the associated logo relevant. “If the brand is still fluid or in a state of flux then solidifying your approach in branding is often detrimental to where your brand may end up,” says Titchener. “In almost all cases, a logo carries no weight until it becomes associated with a wider concept or reputation,” he says. “You could have Peter Saville create a masterpiece for you, yet when it’s applied to a new brand, whilst it may look the part it won’t have the pull, recognition or kudos associated with others because it has no history or relevance.”

As Virgil Abloh noted in a 2018 interview with 032c, “Brands are just tools for consumers to describe their personality. If your personality is flat, then you wear obvious things.”

Fashion’s purists would scoff at this notion—instead pushing the idea of the consumer changing themselves to fit into the designer’s vision, a la Karl Lagerfeld extreme dieting to fit into Hedi Slimane’s Dior Homme.

In honesty, this version of fashion actually hasn’t existed in a long time, as Solomon brings up, pointing out that designer clothing for the mass market was always a paradox. “Originally a designer garment, by definition, is one that's bespoke and made for just one person,” he says. “So having a pair of blue jeans called ‘designer blue jeans’ is actually a contradiction.”

So, taking this in, the appeal of a smaller logo is that it enables all the benefits of a larger logo, but without the negative connotations—gaudiness, the nouveau riche associations and so on. If larger logos were always designed to showcase exclusivity, smaller logos allow the wearer to broadcast themselves to a smaller, even more exclusive group. Arguably, larger logos imply taste, luxury and exclusivity; subtle branding confirms those attributes.

And the reason why this group wants to broadcast with a quieter microphone is typically sociopolitical. Namely, who wants to look like a meal when everyone’s hungry? While it’s often deemed as gauche to bring up real world problems in the world of fashion, it can’t be ignored at a time like this. There’s a reason celebrities left all their frivolities at home when attending protests. In boom times, looking like a gaudy member of the nouveau riche tends to just invite ridicule but, in bust times, this gaudiness invites a lot worse. It’s not necessarily a new take on the aforementioned “hemline index”, but we’d be lying if we said we didn’t see more than a few similarities.

Not to sound cynical, but judging from the way the economy looks, it’s destined to be a long reign for the small logo.