A French Editor's Ode to the Oversize Logo Sweatshirt
You think of Princess Diana, of course.
Eugénie Trochu is a Who What Wear editor in residence known for her transformative work at Vogue France and her Substack newsletter, where she documents and shares new trends, her no-nonsense approach to fashion and style, plus other musings. She's also working on her upcoming first book that explores fashion as a space of memory, projection, and reinvention.
There are clothes you choose, and then there are the ones you slip into without thinking—almost like opening a window in spring. There's that vague sense of freedom even though you know perfectly well it's still a little cold. The oversize logo sweatshirt belongs to that category. It's a comfort piece but never entirely neutral.
It's never anonymous. There is always something written on it—a team, a university, a club. Baseball, basketball, American football, ski club, tennis. There are words you don't necessarily know but that you wear anyway. A slightly faded logo, a hoodie that's too big, a sweatshirt that suggests more of an idea than an actual practice. You're not here to play. You're building a silhouette. You borrow an identity the way you'd borrow a holiday house: without really knowing who lived there before but with the quiet sense that you belong.
In France, the hoodie still feels slightly suspect. We like it, but we edit it. We temper it and make sure it doesn't spill over. Elsewhere, it moves freely without justification. You think of Princess Diana, of course—a Virgin Voyages or Harvard hoodie, bike shorts, dark sunglasses, and that detached ease. It's a silhouette that has become almost theoretical. But there are also her more unpredictable combinations: jeans, cowboy boots, a printed white sweatshirt, a sharp-shouldered blazer, and a cap. It's something slightly chaotic, almost bohemian in spirit, yet perfectly controlled. That's probably what fascinates—a kind of freedom that is, in reality, extremely constructed.
Does it work because it's her? Probably, in part. I am not Diana, and here is what I've learned from wearing it in France.
The oversize logo sweatshirt doesn't tolerate literal styling. Worn at face value, with everything else following the same logic, it becomes an outfit, almost a uniform. What you're after is a silhouette, so you offset it. An XXL hoodie with a slightly dramatic fluffy coat and leopard trousers. A collegiate sweatshirt with perfectly cut flared jeans. A slightly adolescent logo with kitten heels and capri pants. There always has to be tension, a subtle contradiction. Otherwise, it doesn't work.
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