Brand watchers will not have missed this “subversive fashion statement” case of the DHL T-shirt neatly summarised in the Guardian this week. Vetements used the red DHL logo on a yellow T-shirt in a catwalk show to much comment. The shirt has sold out at most retailers, despite having a price tag of £185. Some dedicated fans even took to buying in bulk the almost identical actual workwear T-Shirt from DHL’s own website (where it costs around £4.50 for 100 shirts). The T-shirt has been seen on many famous bodies, and the Vetements’ version has even been knowingly worn about town by the DHL chairman.

The concept and practice here of course raises very interesting intellectual property issues as well as wider cultural issues around the relationship between fashion, branding / logos and indeed politics / consumerism (all of which could have more detailed posts of their own).

This T-shirt hype interestingly comes in the same week as BMW (another famous three letter brand) wins a trade mark infringement case at the UK Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court against a car repair business over the unauthorised use of their trade marks, including use on T-shirts.