Vetements brought a certain sense of humor to streetwear (DHL tees, anyone?) and successfully reinvented the humble sweatshirt as a highly covetable item fetching nearly $1K, worn on repeat by the likes of Rihanna, Kylie Jenner, and Kanye West. Now, the brand is completely contorting the whole designer collaboration idea. Next week, the label will show a spring collection in Paris that doesn't merely go heavy on its references, as in seasons past. Instead, the entire collection is being produced by a whopping 18 different brands, per The Cut's Cathy Horyn.
As for the many, many collaborators, it's a high-low mix, obviously, since that's Vetements' whole schtick. They're mostly purveyors of classics (and, in some cases, straight-up workwear or uniforms), like Levi's, Carhartt, Eastpak, Dr. Martens, Reebok, Hanes, Juicy Couture, Alpha Industries, and Churches, along with a handful of pricier labels, like Manolo Blahnik, Comme des Garçons, Canada Goose, Mackintosh, and Brioni. There are some slightly more oddball cameos, too, like motorcycle and ATV maker Kawasaki, cowboy boot brand Lucchese, and NYC-based leather jacket purveyor Schott.
The brand, born in Georgia (the Eastern European country, not the southern state), and shown in Paris, is helmed by creative director Demna Gvasalia, who works with an anonymous collective of designers. Vetements designed the whole collection, sourcing from the collaborators' signature materials, and the brands handled all the manufacturing in their own factories, according to The Cut. The collection will be shown a full two months ahead of the Paris Fashion Week schedule of the formal spring '17 shows, and will take place at the Galeries Lafayette department store.
Vetements will basically be tinkering with the styles or fabrications each brand is known for. Take, for example, the PFW catwalk-worthy version of Juicy Couture's velour tracksuits: “I love the comfort of it and the trashiness of it. But then we wanted to do something elegant with it, so we made evening dresses," Gvasalia told The Cut.
Sure, we've seen (and apprehensively come around to) a fancy take on Hanes via Re/Done's perfect white T, priced at $78 instead of the staple's typical $2.50 price point. But Vetements-ified takes on these super-basic pieces are bound to be in the high triple-digits, judging by past collections. And the scope of this multi-brand collab sounds much bigger than just, say, a Manolo x J.Crew pair-up (just for NYFW, not your closet), or a Canada Goose puffer on Marc Jacobs' runway.
It sounds like Gvasalia wants to put Vetements' weird twists (particularly with proportion) on the best-in-class brands for particular pieces. While sticker shock is bound to ensue, we're eager to see (and, likely, attempt to crib) these wide-ranging, winking takes on the nearly-played-out designer collab conceit.
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