The Comme des Garçons Play symbol has always been mysterious. Are those two eyes in a single heart a gesture of romance, or a query? "It's a bit like the Mona Lisa," laughs Adrian Joffe, president of Comme des Garçons International, the umbrella business that launched Play, the brand with the instantly recognisable logo, in 2002. "It changes every time you look at it. Maybe it mirrors your mood. It could be a smirk, or tongue-in-cheek. It's magic, because it's not just one single thing."

Play was born of Joffe's partner Rei Kawakubo's desire to create an accessibly priced counterpart to her conceptual Comme des Garçons runway collections, with a logo that would be as instant a signifier as - according to Joffe - the Lacoste crocodile. A doodle at the end of a letter sent by graphic artist Filip Pagowski struck a chord with Kawakubo and the designer subsequently chose it.

That logo whispers that you too are part of the all-discerning Comme club

Today, Play is a gateway to the Comme fortress of fashion that can often be intimidating and bracingly expensive: a ruffle-detail skirt in polyester from the current mainline collection costs close to £2,000. A Play T-shirt, meanwhile, costs £55, while the Converse x Comme des Garçons Play Chuck 70 sneakers, with the heart-and-eyes logo on other side of the classic star emblem, are £140. And that logo whispers to people nonetheless: it's a sign that, even with a small gesture such as a wallet or a hoodie, you too are part of the all-discerning Comme club. It also indicates that you get your staples at Dover Street Market, the multibrand stores operated by Joffe that retain an aura of cool from Tokyo to London to Paris.

Play also feeds into the idea that the Comme des Garçons universe welcomes a broad church of different clients. "We are not a luxury brand," says Joffe, who started working for Comme des Garçons International as commercial director in 1987 and became president in 1993. Founded by Kawakubo in 1969, the brand has expanded into 17 sub-brands under Joffe's tenure, including younger designers Junya Watanabe and Noir Kei Ninomiya's eponymous labels, as well as fragrance and spin-off lines. "We have our own place and do what we want, which can be subversive," says Joffe. "The customers overlap between our labels. Comme Black is a reasonable price, with the designs filtered down from the rest of Comme, and the person who buys from that range might buy a Play T-shirt and save up for a Homme Plus jacket." In 2024, global turnover was around $450mn, up from $320mn in 2019.

Play, and the expanded Dover Street Market retail empire, have become the bread and butter that allows Kawakubo to explore esoteric and uncommercial ideas elsewhere. "We have an annual turnover of $100mn," says Joffe. Sure, call it merch, but Play has stayed credible for over 20 years, remaining popular with celebrities, fashion students and the art crowd. Gen Z consumers are today discovering the googly-eyed heart for the first time. One spots it on football terraces, as well as on the actor Timothée Chalamet (who wears the Converse high-tops).

It has various cultural connotations depending on where you are in the world. "In America it took off through hip-hop artists," says Joffe. "It became a code. In Asia it's younger, more female. It's egalitarian." But ultimately, simplicity remains the point of Play. "Rei doesn't want to over-design it. It's instinctive," says Joffe. Collaborations, such as the Converse link-up, are carefully thought out. "The reason we worked with Converse is because Rei thought a sneaker would be too technological, and she loves a classic tennis shoe," Joffe adds. This year's June addition to the Play collection consisted of mesh T-shirts. The March one included cardigans with the heart surrounded by rhinestones. The brand also has an ongoing collaboration with K-Way, the French purveyor of waterproof jackets.

You could see it as Kawakubo's Warhol moment. The woman who continues to create challenging clothing also utilises Play as a way to merchandise herself without losing integrity. As Warhol said of the soft drink that he silkscreened into pop art: "A Coke is a Coke, and no amount of money can get you a better Coke... All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good." The Play logo is now on well over 5mn pairs of Converse. Not bad for something that "came into being without a plan", says Joffe. "Just like everything else we do." Play, it turns out, is Comme's Coca-Cola.