I don't "pick the label off my car" but I don't use the key fob that comes with it either.

A lot of the young docs at work "casually throw" their keys with their obnoxious shiny keychains onto the desk when we happen to be "working" and mention their "new car".

BARF IN A HANDBAG.

Disclaimer: Please take this in the all-in-good-fun, since-we're-on-the-topic spirit in which it is intended!

I am giggling because whenever we have this discussion, there are some people who are oh-so-horrified at The Very Idea of branded tags or visible labels! So tacky! So obnoxious! So snobby! And forgive me, but each and every time I can't help but think, way back in the very darkest recesses of my admittedly uncharitable little mind, that there is more than a little snobbery (reverse snobbery?) in that attitude, too! LOL

But as caro so beautifully puts it, whatever floats your boat!

^ Agreed, MK. And RoseandJoan makes an excellent point that there are brands listed on EVERYTHING. From your car to your thermos, from your winter boots to your coffee maker. Everything is made by some company, so to say that someone would have to pay you to carry their brand is not true. Unless we all stitch up our own carryalls, we ARE carrying one brand or another. But somehow people deem it okay in some circumstances and not okay in others. Baffling.

Yeah, I'm picking up some major reverse snobbery on this thread.

interesting . . . I don't care either way because I simply don't care visually. I'm picking up that the underlying tone is status. Is the fob used as a status symbol? Is it important? If so, is that somehow inherently good or bad? Too deep for me. That's for sure

Call me a snob, then, MaryK. I just think it gives off that vibe. Why else would anyone care to display their brand choices to others? I think my attitude towards this comes from my high school years, when certain snobby girls wouldn't be caught dead wearing something that didn't have a very visible brand on display. It's the same thing as not wanting to wear the same outfit more than once. God forbid!

I personally don't care if people think I spent a lot of $ for something, but I love to let people know when I got something on clearance or whatever. I don't care if I'm overdressed, I don't want to be underdressed, but I'm quite sure I don't spend as much on my smart casual and dressy outfits as some people do on their casual outfits. I've paid less $ for a nice blouse than some would pay for a sweatshirt.

BTW, I don't use the logo tag that came with the handbag I just bought.

Just sayin'

Carry on.

For me it isn't a question of snobbery it's to do with unpaid advertising - why would I want to do that for a company?

As far as other labels go I'm not carrying my car or fridge around & I'm not able to take the tags off without doing damage. I have bags where I've left the tag on for this reason too

There is a school of thought that says that caring about it at all, whether to ostentatiously display it OR to remove it lest random strangers think one is ostantiously displaying it, is the thing that is uncool. I guess that's my own personal brand of tag snobbery. And our Pippa obviously doesn't have anything to prove to anybody (brunch at the Palace, anyone?) so she is free to display her shiny little Coach hang tag or not and let the rest of us go round and round about the meaning thereof.

MaryK: My handbag came with a logo tag that I could attach if I wanted to. I chose not to. So how does that categorize me? I guess it would put me in the camp of people who don't want to advertise for free. Like I said, if the companies want me to wear (or carry around) their logos, they should pay me.

And I still know people who would rather die than wear an outfit more than once, or wear something that doesn't have a brand prominently displayed on it for all to see. They have other personality characteristics that clue me in to the fact that they dress to impress. I don't think it's so much a "Look how stylish I am" message as it is "Look how much $ I have (or want you to think I have)."

Ruth, in fairness, we can't know why a person wears what they do. You can assume from past experiences of your own what you think their motives are, but you don't really know. I can see the 'judginess' on both sides and neither is pretty. I still stand by 'do whatever the hell you want with your own handbag'.

EDIT: as an example of this, I got a comment here about some jeans I had looking very Isabel Marant. Well, I didn't even know who the heck that was - I just like the style of pant, and it cost me $50. Was I 'dressing to impress'? No. Could it be assumed I was? Maybe. You just. don't. know.

For my part, it has more to do with not wanting to be a vehicle for advertising (thus picking the dealership label off my car...). It feels like a very different thing to remove tags/logos that (in my eyes) aren't an integral part of the item's design or don't add to the design (again, in my eyes). I'm a minimal dresser, and honestly, I prefer minimal design, down to preferring clothes without embroidered logos regardless of maker (I've been looking for a cream cable sweater with no embroidery for while and good luck with that). I think there's room for simply not caring for the aesthetic.

That said, yes, part of it is definitely a reaction to the overly logo-ed place that fashion seems to be, although it feels less so than a few years back. I'd rather admire the quality of an item than an announcement of its maker. Adding to Mo's thoughts...what are the labels standing in for, if anything? If that's reverse snobbery, then I guess you can count me in.

I do respect that others feel differently, and that's what makes the world go 'round.

MK, you're quite right. I think a lot of our sartorial choices and judgments, especially with things like shoes and handbags, reveal our anxieties about classism in interesting ways.

And see, Ruth? If I saw you hadn't attached the logo to your handbag, I'd assume you were with me in the "too cool to care club!" because you just couldn't be bothered to put it on! (Just like, I would assume, you couldn't be bothered to remove the tags that came already attached!) LOL So I'd think you were cool, but for an entirely different reason than you think you are cool! (Except, of course, that I would be far to cool to notice any of that or form any opinions about it whatsoever! ) Which is what makes this whole topic so funny and fun!

So I guess I'm a lesser (vain, shallow, superficial?) person because I wear things like a Kenzo sweatshirt with a big tiger head logo and the brand name on it.
Ok then.

Anna, you are in a classy class by yourself!

Interesting, once upon a time I would have said the divide is one of class, of s.nobs and nobs.

But the world is a very different place. Quite fractured. More personality based. I think there is the "discreet camp" and the "blingy camp".

And the "don't care" camp and the "do care camp" and the "do care but desperately trying to be don't care" camp and the "don't care but trying to care" camp…

There's no clear path to victory on this one. The best I can do is stick with what pleases my eye (while being aware that not all my tastes were born in a vacuum, and that it's worthwhile to confront my own classism) and do my best to not overinterpret someone else's choices.

For me, it's more like what Beth says. I just don't like most of the logos. It's more going on than I am comfortable with. I prefer very little hardware, too. And not much jewellery. So it's all of a piece.

Truth is, if I could take the logo off my fridge I probably would. Well, some people do - they build a cupboard around their fridge to hide it!

I use a keychain with a designer logo (came with a handbag) on my keys for the same reason as MaryK - it matches my initials. I have to say I did not realize it right away - I just used it at first because I tend to misplace the keys and hunt them down inside the purse - but DH noticed my keychain and thought it was amazing/hilarious that I had a keyfob that matched my name.

I was shopping for eyeglasses recently, and unfortunately all designer frames that local shops have come with large logos on the temples. I spent an hour trying to hunt down the elusive logo-free frame but in the end decided if I could only have one of two attributes - stylish frame that suits my face or logo-free frame - I will have to pick the first option. I will be sporting a large Tory Burch logo on my eyeglasses, I am sad to admit.

This is just one of those things where you are d***ed if you do and you're d***ed if you don't.

May I suggest we all go pet our handbags rather than hit each other with them!

Aesthetics, values, motives, status, pride, judgement...this topic is an incendiary.

I know, right? LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pe0rNieL-Q

Anna, what? It makes me sad that that's what you're feeling and I'm not sure that's what anybody is saying?

Anna I believe most, if not all of us are talking about what WE do or don't do or like or don't like. Judging you for your choices never crossed my mind

Beth, I think that's the subtext in any conversation about whether or not it's "tacky" or "in poor taste" or "slavish" or "snobby" to do something. Those are inherently judgmental words.

Generally, it's less incendiary to state that you don't care for something yourself rather than using words that negatively characterize someone else's different choices.

For the record, I don't think anyone meant to hurt anyone else's feelings, but I do think we have to be careful about how we say things...

I confess to being a big reverse snob. I don't have much logo'ed stuff (although I remember REALLY wanting an alligator shirt when I was 12, I never got one), but I do feel gratified when someone recognizes an item just by its design or motif (like a Missoni chevron). It's like "they get it!". That is not the nicest part of my personality, I admit. Maybe I should ask myself why I need that attention? Or just enjoy it as a guilty pleasure.

LOL! Every time I see an MK logo I think of MaryK!!!

I'm a tag and logo cutter offer... mostly 'cause I'm a minimalist and don't like bells and whistles on my clothes and accessories. FWIW I'm non bling and fringed clothing would probably make me crazy!

Amy, yes of course. However, I saw only a few instances of highly judgmental language, and I think most posters were trying to think their way through what obviously became a fraught topic.

Also, I hate seeing Anna sad.

OMG, it is a bad sign when I read Amy's post and think she means dated and wonder why the asterisks and then realize it was a sub for a bad word because dated doesn't have enough letters. Ha.

I don't particularly care for items that are one big logo but don't mind a small fob. Having said that, I have a friend with a logo bag and she loves it and I could not care less that she loves it because I don't carry it.

Its all good. Wear a logo if you love it and yank it off if you don't.

I think of MaryK too when I see MK bags