If, like us, you have an inner fashion geek that loves to delve a bit deeper into the business of fashion, then you'll devour this new interview with Vetements CEO Guram Gvasalia (brother of Creative Director Demna). It really is fascinating.
The Parisian brand is undeniably changing the way we look at and think about fashion - whether it's methods will influence wider change is yet to be seen, but it's certainly worth giving it some thought - and that's exactly what Gvasalia's 'in conversation with Sarah Mower' at The Royal Institution, handily transcribed by 1Granary, the magazine run by Central Saint Martins students, allows you to do.
We've pulled out the most interesting bits, but we strongly recommend you read the entire thing.
So, why are Vetements average-looking pieces, like its £800 vintage Levi's and £500 Titanic hoody, so extortionately priced?
'There are a few reasons,' says Gvasalia.
'One is that we work with amazing factories. These factories are not cheap. Another thing is the fabric. For example, the hoodies Demna likes to use molton cotton that is very heavy. It is almost 480g compared to the usual 240g. The price of creating this heavy cotton is double the price of creating a regular one. For the normal ones you can go up to 1.5m, but for the oversized pieces it can go up to 3 or 4.5m of fabric. It all comes together with the shipping costs. It is nicer when people save up. They can buy this one piece that they cherish for a longer time, rather than spending money on clothes every week that they throw away afterwards. The whole idea is to limit the production, having less pieces and making sure that people who buy these pieces can cherish it for a longer time. It’s moving away from this idea of fashion fashion, to this idea of slow fashion,' he explains.
And why are they so damned hard to get hold of?
'Luxury was always something that was scarce. Today, I don’t consider Louis Vuitton to be a luxury brand – yes, the quality is luxury, but if you can go to the store and get whatever you want, it’s not luxury. For us, the important thing is that we don’t restock and once you come to the showroom, it’s the only chance you’re going to have to place an order,' explained Gvasalia. 'Once it’s sold out, it’s sold out. We had hoodies from the first season that sold out super quickly and we had thousands of requests to make the hoodies again. If we were to, we would probably be able to make a million in a day. It’s out of respect to the people that bought them first that we don’t.'
So there you go.
