Vetements back with quintessential fun, quirky collection
On Thursday night, Vetements took over a McDonald's branch on Paris’s Champs-Elysées to present the new Spring/Summer 2020 collection, a throwback to the gleeful, quirky style that made the label's name from its debut, strutting its stuff in a relaxed, playful atmosphere. On the menu, a fresh mash-up of Vetements’s best-sellers, all with a heavy emphasis on its logo.
The use of a condom as invitation card set the tone for the show. At the restaurant’s door, Coke and water are offered to the guests, in cardboard cups printed with the world-famous yellow M, customised with the Vetements logo. The collection’s eclectic themes are printed on the paper napkins set on the tables. Vetements made widespread use of its logo, and had no qualms in replaying prints and fabrics seen in previous collections, a way of showing, as if there was any doubt, that fashion is a matter of endless recycling.
The show felt like a dive into the world of Vetements from its early days, fast-forwarding through the label’s creations since its launch in 2014: a cool, laid-back wardrobe of streetwear-inspired clothes, all of them garnished with directional details that make them irresistible.
“Come as you are,” was the slogan affixed on one wall of the McDonald's branch. A slogan that seemed to have been penned by Gvasalia himself, to capture the mood of his collections. The latest of which is once again big on uniforms, from McDonald's waiters to night watchmen, bikers and, especially this season, cops. The latter came in riot-police and crime-squad uniforms with helmets, flak jacket with oversized shoulders and assorted combat trousers with huge leg-guards, all of course sporting the Vetements logo as insignia.
A logo that crops up everywhere, reshaping the crests on a Police Nationale officer’s white or sky blue shirt, the logo of a famous beer on a green t-shirt, the Planet Hollywood logo on a vintage one, or emblazoned on flip-flops showing the model’s varnished toenails. Occasionally, a simple, stylised V featuring on a sports outfit also appears on a hat or a track suit, adding to the confusion.
Gvasalia didn’t hold back from tinkering with other logos either, such as ‘Böse’, which means ‘angry’ in German and also, minus the umlaut, is the name of a loudspeaker brand, printed on sweaters, t-shirts and denim coveralls.
On the womenswear side, Gvasalia amused himself with leopard and zebra looks. He came up again with his ‘Black Friday’ layered dresses, a stratified accumulation of shirts, skirts and dresses in various fabrics. Entire t-shirts pop out of the sleeves of a floral dress, like XXL sleeves themselves. And another Vetements classic, an overcoat in the same pattern as a pair of vertiginous stocking-shoes.
The volumes are generous throughout, though not excessive. A red polo worn like a tunic drops down to the calves. In a final humorous twist, a white t-shirt comes inscribed with the slogan ‘I Love Paris’ and, in smaller lettering, ‘Hilton’.
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