Vetements. Fall 2021

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(Images: Vetements 2021)

The cult fashion brand Vetements lead by Guram Gvasalia returns after their February 2020 showing in a car park on the outskirts of Paris, just before the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc throughout out the world and it is his latest showing that has reflected the turmoil.  Landing a massive collection for Vetements Fall 2021 lookbook array.  Incorporating also a Ready-to-Wear ensemble, with the anti-fashion ethos and backlash styling remaining, ensuing the uniqueness of the Vetemenets brand to which his brother Demna who is now with Balenciaga has reset the famous fashion house with the Gvasalia touch of gritty urban and refined underground styled clothes.    One has to hand it to the Gvasalia brothers, more so Guram’s shrewd business sense and the Georgian roots for grounding, in a period of eight years, a solidified imprint into the fashion industry as a reactionary, yet highly exclusive and successful fashion name.

But, it is Guram’s Vetements, now a solo project without his brother Demna, which is edging closer to its hallmark of his idealism of European inspired underground fashion, when the catch cry of slow fashion was initiated few years on the back of waste that the fashion industry creates, it was Vetements that encapsulated the slow fashion concept as more as a capitalized business model only a few seasons in when they began in producing clothes in 2014.  Their extraordinary high prices and Guram’s shift from CEO to the brand’s creative director, offers an explanation for production to be of a very limited supply, stating in a 2016 interview that Vetements deliberately run production rates at a bare minimum, to the point of complete scarceness on a claim that his brand encapsulates luxury more so than the established fashion labels.   Limiting orders to his buyers at capped amounts, some outlets can’t order anymore than 10 pairs of Vetements jeans, reducing others to four. Scarcity certainly works as does niche markets, but this is also an inflation price trade, which by its definition, for better or worst is possibly where the future markets may lie.   A pair of Vetements x Reebok screen printed socks for $200 USD?  Clearly aimed at maintaining their edge over Off White’s and Givenchy’s impact on the Chinese markets, more so, in an interesting twist his brother, Demna, reshaping of Balenciaga, the number one favorite in China.   Just as long as the South China Sea tensions between the West and China don’t go all ‘Cuban missile Crisis’.

With pricing and business modeling aside, what Guram’s latest collection may lack in production runs of particular items, he makes up with the massive scale of limited pieces offered.  Splitting the menswear amd RTW collections into three parts, Hell, Earth and then Heaven.   A sought of play on the Esoteric Jewish mysticism of Gehinnom, a place where distressed and sinful souls are cleansed in place of purgatory turmoil and then renewed.  The irony of course is the Vetements styles on display remain tune while the background changes into the three dynamics,  maybe its all about endurance rather than being renewed.    Hell is a state of mind.  The philosophical question can be asked: Do we submit and meld to nature or do we overcome its indifference?  Including our own flawed human nature.

Sheer tops, graphic prints, notably the Vetements pentagram prints, high shoulder pandered blazers, the kitsch color palette and the urban everyman and woman thrift mix and match styles and Eastern European gangster looks hold the line, yet the tailoring is superb, clearly well made and cut clothes for such a large collection the styling is top notch.  Guram’s in joke is also in there with “Gvasalia for President” t-shirt in the American flag colors, which maybe a cynical play on American politics, but, in all hopes that newly elected President Joe Biden keeps the financial and military aid to Georgia with Putin’s destabilization of the small country via Russian sanctions – a constant reminder of Cold War redux tensions.

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(A.Glass 2021)