It is now getting on for half a century since London's 'Bunny Club' closed its doors for the last time. Today skimpily clad lap (or pole) dancers have totally taken over from Hugh Hefner's more innocent, tight laced, long eared and fluffy tailed hostesses as the epitome of risqué 'night spot' glamour.

But as the latest Harrods catalogue proves, although long after what originally inspired it has faded from the scene, a good logo goes on for ever. So the disembodied rabbit wearing a bow tie who was created to promote the Bunny clubs in their heyday continues to be seen as a motif capable of building sales for a casual wear collection.

The Harrods items include a T-shirt, printed sleeveless vest and co-ordinating boxer shorts. Nor are these items aimed at the golden oldies among Harrods shoppers, for most of those who have fond memories of the first generation of Bunny girls must be about to collect their OAP bus passes.

But the Bunny motif range of printwear is on display in the 'Way In' department, the sector which has always been promoted as the Knightsbridge store's most youthful and street wise clothing section.

So which are the best selling logos of today which are still going to be lifting the spirits of printwear suppliers in fifty years time? A good place to shop for the answer to that question is the annual Brand Licensing Fair which took place at London's Earls Court arena at the end of October.

Brand Licensing is the event at which licensors introduce their latest crop of 'names to conjure with' to potential licensees, most of whom will then seek out experts from the field of printwear to produce the actual money spinning merchandise on which the prosperity of licensing actually depends.

A special feature of the 2004 show was the degree to which the sale of branded merchandise has become a respectable way for venerable British institutions to raise additional funds.

Bodies like the Imperial War Museum and the Historic Royal Palaces (the latter appropriately based at Hampton Court) are now prepared to set out their stall competing with more obviously commercial licensors from the world of entertainment for the licensees who will be responsible for producing the next season's souvenir ranges.

In the past, licensing was almost entirely toy trade related. And, character merchandised items which appeal primarily to kids continues to be a major contributor to licensors and licensees incomes.

But the toppling of Mattel's Barbie from her 40 year long reign as the best seller in the £256 million a year UK doll market suggests that even in this seemingly secure branded sector times are changing. When Barbie first appeared in 1959 she overnight transformed the international doll market by introducing what was then regarded as high fashion to the nursery age group.

At the peak of her popularity somewhere in the world three Barbie dolls were changing hands every second around the clock. Most pleasingly for the printwear and promotion business, Barbie enthusiasts had a seemingly endless appetite for follow-on-sales merchandise, ranging from lunch boxes and thermos flasks to handbags and bubble bath.

Now however, the busty blonde's role as generator of mega bucks merchandising has been usurped by an even more topically fashion conscious mannequin, in the cheeky form of the Bratz doll.

What separates the two is whereas Barbie's 'fashion' wardrobe always tended toward fantasy princess end of the spectrum, Bratz dolls dress in styles echo the styles that can be seen on any street wise teenager. Their image is simultaneously younger and 'cooler' in the eyes of pocket money purchasers, making Barbie by comparison seem like a mutton dressed as lamb 45 year old.

It is a recipe for success which has already brought Bratz creators MGA Entertainment of LA, retail sales worth in excess of £68 million, and already 80 million Bratz dolls have been sold into a market place whichnow encompasses 200 nations.

The big question now is whether MGA, and Bratz UK distributors Vivid Imaginations, can similarly match Mattel ‘s past skills in striking deals with licensors capable of extending Bratz pulling power into the 'life style' sector and especially the children's clothing sector.

As children shake off interest in traditional toys at an ever earlier stage in their young lives, so the role of printwear and the rights to adorn clothing with young appeal motifs plays an ever greater role in the character merchandising market.

Specifically on Bratz, the pessimistic view from the Printwear trade is that the close approximation to the real life leisure clothing worn by Bratz owners - the same factor fact that makes the dolls initially so appealing - will prove self defeating, lacking the strength as a brand image around which to build a successful merchandising empire.

At the recent Brand Licensing fair, this view encouraged the revival of another ironic figure from the toy trade's past : Sindy. She was the more demurely youthful, all British, fashion doll launched in the 1960s as a rival to Barbie and the preferred choice of parents who thought Barbie too overtly sexy a toy to be put into the hands of their infant daughters.

Ironically their suspicions had a basis in fact. For the figure, which with some obvious amendments, eventually evolved into Barbie was originally an adult appeal doll sold through German sex shops under the name of Lili.

The Pedigree Group Ltd - who are responsible for re-introducing Sindy to the character merchandising scene - say that they are seeking the 'widest possible' product development. But it seems unlikely that Sindy will be able to seamlessly cross the divide between images suitable for kiddy merchandise and those which grown up shopper are happy to adopt as motifs for clothing.

Merchandise items inspired by the sci-fi/fantasy series Dr. Who are another story. While first time viewers of the new series scheduled to run across 13 episodes from early 2005 will probably be in the five to just pre-teens age group, there remains a strong residue of admirers from the days when the series commanded 10 million viewers an episode, many of them already adult who could be potential customers for Dalek decorated, or other 'Whovian' merchandise.

The Dr Who cult has always been an international phenomenon since the BBC sold the series widely overseas. At its peak it is estimated that the adventures of the eccentric 'time lord' were being screened in 60 countries.

First licences for children's nightwear have already been agreed and there are reputed to be at least three companies additionally interested in producing adult clothing. Would you be interested in dressing in clothing which replicated the attire of the hapless 'house mates' who put themselves forward for public approbation, or worse still ridicule on Channel 4 reality show Big Brother?

Joe Mahoney, head of commercial development for 4 Ventures believes - based on the show's six million viewers an episode rating - that last time around a 'big merchandising opportunity in the clothing market' was missed by the team responsible for Big Brother and has pledged to put this right when the show returns to UK TV screens in May 2005.

Mahoney indeed has already drawn up a list of the retail outlets he believes would be eager to carry clothing based on, and promoting Big Brother. Top of his list is the Topshop chain.

Miss Selfridge and even Next have been mentioned as possible stockists. Both high street retail outlets and internet web site sales are likely to be sought by Bravado International for their latest pop music inspired range of licensed clothing.

In the past, Bravado have been best known for developing and marketing licensed products to support contemporary band tours, but it too is now seeking to ride the revival band wagon.

The latest venture involves the creation of a Vintage range centred around a T-shirt collection printed with the graphics and the graffiti which originally helped to launch such groups asIron Maiden and Led Zeppelin. This style will help create the illusion that the shirts have been around since the days when the Sex Pistols first gave birth to punk distressing techniques have been used.

Bravado said its only worry is that the shirts look so authentically ancient that unscrupulous dealers could start passing them off to collectors at vastly inflated prices, as genuine survivors of the past glory days of an earlier rock 'n' roll era.

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