For me, it started when Burberry sent the monogrammed shawls down the catwalk for their AW14 collection that sparked the frenzy that had everyone coveting their own personalized scarf. It wasn’t a surprise to see that soon after, we wanted our initials stamped on every accessory we owned and jumped the chance to personalize our very own unique pair of Prada shoes.

It all comes back to the idea of bespoke tailoring, something that has perhaps gotten lost within the past decade or more, due to the rise of fast fashion. So seeing luxury brands offering this service to their customers was a nod towards the skill of the craftsman and shows an appreciation to the exclusivity that comes with it.

So, where does DIY differ? Well, in some ways, it doesn’t. Although some criticism has fallen at Vetements for selling DIY’ed Levi jeans at triple the price, (after all, isn’t DIY something you do yourself rather than buy?) there’s no denying that we are living in a teenage angst dream. After recently attending the AW16 Press Days, it seemed clear that monograms and DIY played a big part in the collections, and most noticeably on anything and everything denim.

 

Customise badges will be available in Accessorize stores soon. The monogrammed keyfob was kindly gifted by Monsoon exclusive to those who attended Press Day.

 

We’ve already seen the trend hit stores this SS16, noticeably with Zara offering denim jeans and dresses with various patchwork designs, but I actually had the chance to personalise my own denim clutch bag at Accessorize (soon to be available in store) and I was thrilled at the chance to decorate my own bag! Perhaps that’s where the difference between the two is, that monogrammed items feel a lot more lux and special, but DIY pulls at our inner child who collected stickers and pinned badges on their school blazer and backpack from the latest Shout magazine.

Something about the whole process of cute tacky badges also feels very much like the Gucci Dionysus SS16 embellished bags which are beautiful in all their ugly glory.