Vetements x Reebok above via Miroslava Duma Instagram.
There’s been a lot of chatter in advance of Vetement’s spring 2017 runway presentation with a lot of the discussion centered around the label’s announcement that it would collaborate with multiple brands including Dr. Martens, Reebok, Levi’s, Hanes, Manolo Blahnik, Juicy Couture, Carhartt, Eastpak, Canada Goose, Lucchese, Mackintosh, Church’s, Alpha Industries, Champion, Kawasaki, Schott, Comme des Garçons, Brioni and Juicy Couture.
Each brand was tasked to make the item that lined up best with their expertise so Levi’s created denim items, Juicy a track suit and so on down the line. Underscoring the everyday nature of many of the brands, the show was held in Galeries Lafayette, a regular, degular, shmegular Paris department store with every attendee provided a front row seat.
No doubt there will be push back on the concept, already the brand has amassed a small army of eye-rolling haters irritated by what they view as design based mostly in antics and hype, a reaction among establishment fashion watcher (not coincidentally) that always seems to be an issue whenever a label is popular among rap artists.
But other than lead designer Demna Gvasalia’s lost in the sauce take on diversity (tho lo, he did cast not just one but several people of color in today’s runway!), it’s hard not to cheer the energy and fun that emanates from Vetement’s presentation. And today’s runway was buoyed by more than just collaborative pieces, the off-kilter menswear-inspired suits worn by both male and female models were as much a look as the bedazzled Juicy Couture tracksuit.
Topping today’s presentation might be tough given all the energy arising from the massive number of collaborations, but the label is brand new and appears to very much be on a roll, leaving it in that very enviable place in fashion, where everyone is wondering what it will come up with next.
