Vetements Women's SS16 - Paris

[Law]

Implying that Wang had any direction at all at Balenciaga is being kind.

Can you please elaborate.

[Vanna]

Can you please elaborate.

Sure. I'm actually not an opponent of Wang. Though I do think it's generally pretty popular among fashion people to deride him (Too young, too rich, too successful, too fast).

I think as creative director he designed competent but not compelling clothing for Balenciaga. Coming off of NG’s departure, expectations were incredibly high. Whoever was to take the reins had to redefine what the Balenciaga woman was about, yet Wang continued to be referential of his predecessors work without displaying a mastery of those ideas. Because of this, he was unable to sew a connective thread through to each collection during his time at the house, making clothes that seemed as if a choir of disparate noises. His clothing got caught in a parade of fashion sameness that left the Balenciaga woman without a voice.

[BSR]

It is very hype indeed...

Why it is well-liked:

-Harkens back to the anti-fashion aesthetic. Jeans are vintage looking, looks aren't too polished, pieces are Margiela-deconstructed, proportions are awkward, styling is eclectic.

-Still manages to reference the main fashion cool things of the moment: Skate/Trasher/streetwear/Gosha aesthetic, 90s musicians, leather pants in 70s colours, LGBT subcultures.

avant-garde (going against the present, to give a glimpse of a possible future) has been dissolved into postmodernity (everything has to be referential and ironic). I prefer Slp and Balmain to this bourgeois crap.

[snafu]

I agree, but only with the SLP. Fuck Balmain.

[SafetyKat]

avant-garde (going against the present, to give a glimpse of a possible future) has been dissolved into postmodernity (everything has to be referential and ironic).

In a way I think you just described a popular personality type I'm witnessing a lot in ppl around my age at the moment.

Unrelated notes aside, the only thing coming across to me as maybe "too much" is the logos and some of the text printing (especially on the hoodies). I can appreciate Gvasalia's interpretation of what anti-fashion/rebellion can be compared to someone like Slimane's.

Vanna Interesting, reminds me of the students giving tours at FIT a few months ago practically raving about Alexander Wang. Even most of the people touring listed Wang as asked about inspirational people. He's like the Michael Jordan of designers over there

[Faust]

avant-garde (going against the present, to give a glimpse of a possible future) has been dissolved into postmodernity (everything has to be referential and ironic). I prefer Slp and Balmain to this bourgeois crap.

I LOLed. You are out of your mind. Or French.

[Fuuma]

avant-garde (going against the present, to give a glimpse of a possible future) has been dissolved into postmodernity (everything has to be referential and ironic). I prefer Slp and Balmain to this bourgeois crap.

Yeah, Vêtements can only be considered avant-garde by people who go to Dadaist exhibits in 2015 and think it is avant-garde.

I enjoy it but then I like listening to new wave, even "current" one.

[Icarium]

The branding reminds me of hood by air's.

[mainstayer0]

I took the logos to be a sort of self-aware dig at modern streetwear, and conspicuous branding in general. And it didn't feel affected or edgy, as sometimes Saint Laurent does. The post-ironic references were well balanced by the engaging designs, and while it's easy to see the Margiela influence personally I thought the collection as a whole was evocative of Helmut Lang; it gave me the same feeling of a cohesive attempt to design a style for this generation.

[snafu]

I really don't feel its a 'dig' or comment at conspicuous branding.

I think its conspicuous branding designed for the instagram age. #vetements #streetstyle #lookatme #followme

If you want to see self aware commentary on branding kilo kostadinov is doing that with his Stussy work. He is very much aware of the instagram/street fashion, but he is exploring it, rather than Vetements is just exploiting it: i feel it comes across as lazy.}

Its no different to football casuals in Stone Isalnd, Guido's in D&G, or goth ninjas in BBS 11... They are feeding the hype and giving fashionistas something for instagram.

[ProfMonnitoff]

Something is missing with Vetements. I'm not sure whether it's lacking substance / quality design, or maybe it's just not the right time for this kind of thing anymore. Either way the commentary this is trying to make has already been made, better, by others, in the past. The only new thing this brings to the table is the kind of flatness and instant recognizability that makes for good social media imagery. And the clothes themselves are very boring.

[ronin]

^That's exactly how I feel about it - the nod to Margiela is so strong it's bordering on rehash. Now, I might be influenced by my distate for sportswear and tacky slogans, but still, it seems only logical that what was 'avant-garde' some 20 years ago has become trite by now, and it's all the more apparent when referenced amongst other tokens of nostalgia. While aesthetics (for lack of a better word), or a personal universe, can be enduring (I don't mind Yohji doing Yohji 40 years after, and his early garments are anything but dated), I don't think the same can be said of a conceptual approach/experiment, which needs to be constantly challenged and renewed to remain relevant. I might be missing something, but I'm quite perplexed about the rave reviews I've been hearing left and right (but then again so was I with Jacquemus and most recent examples of infatuation).

[Faust]

avant-garde (going against the present, to give a glimpse of a possible future) has been dissolved into postmodernity (everything has to be referential and ironic). I prefer Slp and Balmain to this bourgeois crap.

Yeah, Vêtements can only be considered avant-garde by people who go to Dadaist exhibits in 2015 and think it is avant-garde.

I enjoy it but then I like listening to new wave, even "current" one.

I just want to point out that no one called it avant-garde except you two. Talk about self-satisfaction in preconceived notions.

[casem]

I feel old because I really really don't get this brand. After reading all the rave reviews I looked at it over and over but still don't understand the appeal. I actually agree with BSR, if you're going to rifle through thrift store finds at least SLP makes it sexy, luxe and desirable instead of just ugly/ironic.

[Faust]

I must say that after reading not one but two overly laudatory articles in the Independent, I am beginning to side with BSR and Fuuma, haha. And they did call it "avant-garde." Which is lame.