Vetements: The Coolest Cult at Paris Fashion Week SS16

Vetements is the coolest brand out there at the moment. It's name which translates simply into "clothes" has something embedded in it that goes way beyond the surface than just the clothes they make. I mean yeah of course the individual garments are incredible and dare I say desirable (I mean they mightn't be to everyone's taste, I myself am obsessed) but they spark a curiosity into the people behind the face of the brand. Furthermore, Vetements quietly stands out with it's anonymous and customer-centric approach, in a city built on the remains of fashion's luxury elite, the big-name houses founded throughout the twentieth Century; the Dior's, the Yves Saint Laurent's, the Chanel's, the Balenciaga's, which ironically next season will be headed up by a new creative director. I'm sure you've all already heard this but that person is no other than Demna Gvasalia, the man behind Vetements, the man who until very recently produced Vetements out of his own bedroom in Paris, whilst still enduring his day job at Margiela, later Louis Vuitton. Balenciaga: a fashion house that for sixteen years from 1997 to 2013 was once upon a time fronted by Nicolas Ghesquière (now at Louis Vuitton) who's designs are still or atleast trying to be replicated on the runway even today. After this departure, the reigns was handed over to Alexander Wang. Which don't get me wrong, Alex Wang is an exceptional talent for a designer his age (over $100m in revenue in 2013 for his own label) it's just that it didn't seem to fit, in all honesty I always felt like it would be an an odd appointment for creative direction at Balenciaga, although when it was announced I genuinely was excited. Anyway I have really high hopes and weirdly higher expectations for someone having only completed four seasons with his own brand, but Demna Gvasalia and Vetements are indeed the most current "thing" in fashion right now. 

For Spring/Summer 2016, Vetements dragged fashion's elite to a kitschy and tacky, old-fashioned, yet  banquet Chinese restaurant Le President in Paris' old Chinatown Belleville claiming that "this is what we know and love". It even had waiters watching from behind the bar. I love that. The Vetements world is one that I imagine not a lot of people, especially even the "fashion" crowd have experienced. There is still something slightly underground to what they do as a brand, something again not a great deal of people I imagine will get. Before we get onto talking specifically about the clothes I loved, can I just say that I admired that Russian menswear designer Gosha Rubchinskiy opened the show wearing a bright yellow DHL (yes the delivery service) t-shirt, mirroring his take on famous iconography present in so many of his own collections. Remember AW15's play on the Tommy Hilfiger logo? He's essentially the current master of ugly-cool-beautiful.

Vetements' underlying coolness comes from the fact that they get the Kanye(s) sat front row, the get the Rihanna(s) wearing their oversized logo hoody, but not in a way of intending to do so. They're not trying to be cool - far from it, they just are. Trying too hard to be cool, results in you not being cool. Vetements isn't designed in a way, just to be overshadowed by a star-studded front row, it's already above that. Unlike celeb-driven Oliver Rousteing's Balmain or over his last few seasons (no more) Alexander Wang's Balenciaga or even Kanye West's Yeezy Seasons. Ironically they all seem to involve Kanye West, Kim or the rest of the Kardashian Klan. Sorry. You know that family famous for being famous? Have you heard of them?

In a pretty much genderless collection - although perhaps more in favour of the male. As I mentioned earlier, Gosha opened the show in pretty standard menswear essentials, printed t-shirt, boxy as fuck black short sleeve shirt, leather trousers and Dr. Martens-esque boots, with contrast yellow stitching and everything. As I think everyone expected, the collection featured heavily on their now staple oversized garments, work shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, blazers - mostly all with exaggerated sleeve length. Something that got everyone talking were those incredible Vetements labelled thigh-high boots that come in a whole array of colours and textures; leather, PVC, suede, lime green, burgundy, brown, floral. I think I remember reading somewhere about the Vetements sales team prompting them to include more dresses this season, and boy did they do just that. Of course they done it in there own obnoxious way, the dresses had this wonderful anti-fashion, anti-establishment feel to them, something that the brand represent so well. Think Kurt Cobain crossdressing in a floral tea dress. More attitude over prettiness. Going back to Gosha (again sorry) and his influence he's had on Vetements with all the takes on famous iconic logos, this time round was the Champion-turned-Vetements logo with the letter "C" turned on it's side, forming a "V". That was featured on a matching green hoody and sweatpants. Obsessed. Back to the blazers, I think when I posted a picture on Instagram that I captioned it something along the lines of "Women in 80's power suiting" referring to the Wall Street boom of the 1980's. I feel a lot of the collection was about girls rebelling against what is meant by the term "pretty" or a lot about taking control, dominance, regaining power. Finally what garment I also loved was the trousers, made out of what looked like regular cotton, quite military with the high slits up the sided and cargo pockets. Those looked fucking cool. Anyway here is every look from the Vetements Spring/Summer 2016 collection.

      

             

      

     

     

      

      

      

      

      

    

The Wolf of High Street

xxx

Images courtesy of Dazed Digital and Vogue Runway