Tedious Trends from Summer and the Olympics, Part One: Kappa and Italy

Though I tend to dislike big trends, sometimes I can’t help but noticing them when their omnipresence starts to make it seem like I will never find anyone interesting to photograph. So, I have decided to do something a little different with a series on the most tedious trends of the last few weeks. To start, at this Olympics, everyone was wearing Kappa or something related to Italy.

I have a friend who is a designer at Kappa and their two woman logo is cool, but I’m against any type of free advertising and brand that dominates the landscape without a subtle touch.

Kappa must be the most successful company when it comes to plastering China with its logo.

Sure, for a sportswear brand it does seem more provocative than Adidas or Nike.

I hope the Italian government is subsidizing this. Italian brands can probably get away with displays like this more than American ones.

Apparently Chinese audiences were comparatively supportive of Italian athletes. It’s not surprising.

Even names of towns make it onto the apparel. This must help with encouraging tourism from China.

Even some foreign kids are getting in on it.

We like to complain about Chinese nationalism, but the Chinese flags at the Olympics were mostly stickers. The Italian flags are permanently on the clothes.

Now they just need to get “Italia” onto the famous manpurses and they can plaster the Middle Kingdom.

Nels Frye is a freelance writer, photographer, consultant and stylist, based in Beijing. Focuses are on street style, other consumer trends, and broader social issues.

Comments are closed.