Twenty years ago, American comic writer Fran Lebowitz wrote disparagingly about clothes decorated with words and messages. If people do not want to talk to you, what makes you think they want to hear from your T-shirt? she asked. But the craze for script-laden clothing has shown no sign of abating.
Last week, the Revenue Commissioners announced that customs officers during the past six weeks had seized counterfeit sports and leisurewear representing a loss to legitimate trade of about £1 million.
What distinguished these items was the dominant presence of brand names and logos. Words were everywhere, even if what they said was not true.
As the £1 million tag attached to recent seizures indicates, branded clothing, real or fake, is a substantial business. Most companies are reluctant or unable to quantify potential loss of earnings from the sale of counterfeit goods.
A spokesman for Adidas, one of the most popular labels, estimated that while only 10 per cent of the fakes bearing its name in Ireland are discovered, the total revenue loss runs to "probably a couple of million pounds". In Britain, he said, the figures are much greater.
But despite enjoying enormous popularity and massive global sales, the branded clothing business has little to do with mainstream fashion. Well-known international names such as Calvin Klein, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana adorn T-shirts and hooded tops but these items could hardly be said to show best the designers' talents.
What they do represent is mass aspiration, just as they reflect popular taste promulgated through pop music. Branded sportswear is essentially an American phenomenon and owes its rise primarily to black performers.
Rap artists in particular have emphasised clothes that are visibly expensive yet casual, hence the demand for branding and bold colours. Impoverished urban black Americans who wanted to be noticed made Tommy Hilfiger one of the world's most successful brand names in the 1990s.
Gradually, the choice of one specific group has become more widespread, thereby obscuring its origins. The baggy, low-slung trousers worn by many teenagers, for example, first appeared among black prisoners in US jails, who had their belts confiscated for security reasons. The baseball cap worn back-to-front is another black American trend which has travelled. The demand for loose, logo-drenched clothing was also helped by the high profile of sport and sports players and a move towards more relaxed dressing.
Clothes have become steadily more casual this century as formal styles fall out of favour. But casual, in this instance, does not mean cheap. In the Champion Sports chain a two-piece boy's tracksuit in 100 per cent polyester and bearing the all-important Nike name and logo can cost £50. Adidas three-stripe pants cost £35 a pair and a Manchester United red polo shirt is £20. Almost without exception, these goods are made in countries where labour costs are low. The Nike tracksuit came from Bangladesh, the Adidas pants from Vietnam.
In BT2, a shop on Grafton Street, Dublin, devoted to clothing of this kind, Ralph Lauren Polo Sport baseball caps made in Taiwan cost £40 and a Chinese-manufactured Tommy Hilfiger nylon quilted jacket £250. Moving on to a denim outlet, it seems Levi's, surely as American a product as it is possible to find, has most of its branded clothing made in Greece or Portugal.
Interestingly, the same Asian countries producing the real thing are also usually responsible for counterfeit clothing. Most of the goods found by customs officers originated in Thailand and Bangladesh. The materials used in both instances tend to be the same, either inexpensive polyester or poly-cotton and manufacturing overheads are minimal.
Last year, Christian Aid produced a report which showed a Chinese worker for Nike would have to be employed for nine hours a day, six days a week for 15 centuries on current salary levels to match the salary of the company's head, Phil Knight. The gap between production cost and eventual retail price can therefore be startling; one estimate last year came up with a difference of 600 per cent. Such is the demand for sportswear that consumers are willing to ignore this differential.
Companies such as Nike, Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger invest heavily in advertising to maintain their place in the market, although there is evidence that demand for certain labels is waning. But the fashion for such clothes is not. Guinness produces its own line of tops and sweaters; typically, a rugby shirt embroidered with its name and logo retails for £22.99. Menswear shop Tricot Marine sells sweaters across which its name is writ large for £59.95 and even Dunnes Stores has sweatshirts bearing the words "Island Marines Sportswear".
As a walk through any town centre will prove, a lot of people seem happy to have paid substantial sums for the privilege of becoming a multinational company's walking advert.