Vetements. Fall 2024 - Paris Fashion Week.

Vetements is what a postmodernism cliché would look like, a sought of simulacrum of its simulation, without overly borrowing from the late French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, who, and if you have been following my reviews of Demna (now of Balenciaga fame) and Guram Gvasalia, Baudrillard seems to hold the most poignant quotes in light of the hyperreal, that is the Gvasalia fashion engine.  And my overall critique, of the now apparent competitiveness between the two brothers, is that it would make more sense and have become a lot more relevant, in its aesthetics, if it was not so intentionally predictable.  The Gvasalia's seem obsessed with overstating the banal. 

Yet, Vetements still has its buyers and Guram in his excessively derived collections, holds that line of both the exclusive and quantity driven in selling the Vetements template.  And his so called backlash fashion that Celebritydom has lapped up and projected through the digital relays, is not for the average consumer.  Who could only hope to purchase a pair of 'destroyed' denim shorts for $1,600 U.S. Dollars.  

Guram's Fall 2024 collection has taken the oversize look to the next level, even with Vetements standard of accentuating the use of fabrics and layering.  The extremity of the collection, and its exaggeration  of heavy set styles falls more towards the impracticable.  Noted with some of the tailored arrays, seen at the end of the vast 90 piece collection, with models holding up at their skirt hems as they walk the runway. 

However, the overall presentation for Guram's latest ensemble does have an intriguing Avant-garde feel, with its doomy, apocalyptical imprint.  A reflection of a fashion trend, as we all move further into 2024, that globally turmoil is everywhere.  Regardless of being washed over with last gasps of denial through our social media feeds, the human race is in trouble.  A New Cold War and Nuclear arms race, the West backing a genocide in Gaza, via Israel.  Climate change, as extreme weather patterns will eventually affect food supplies.  The  list of these tumultuous events appears, at this point in time, endless.  The pandemic of 2020 was just the beginning.

And fashion works best, when it assists, even in its obscurity, heralding in a counter culture, which, despite the students of the world galvanizing to protest against the Gaza genocide, remains elusive.  So, when I view the antifashion or backlash styles, such as Vetements, there is a desire to see the absurd and surreal cleverly used to reveal its contradictions.  And in all of its honesty, when achieved, holds a lasting appeal.  

I have yet to see this with Vetements.

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(A.Glass 2024)