Vetements CEO On Limiting Luxury

As CEO of Vetements, which he set up with his brother Demna, Gurum Gvasalia is a man in demand. Since the label arrived on the fashion scene in 2014, rapidly becoming one of - if not the - most talked-about labels in the world, its unconventional attitude has been the subject of much debate and never more so than when it comes to the issue of luxury and exclusivity.

"We are always trying to change the supply curve, making it just a little bit less than the demand curve, to make sure that you sell out," he told Sarah Mower of the brand's approach during a discussion at The Royal Institute this week, reports 1 Granary. "It is always better to sell one piece less to a store and to be sold out than to sell one piece extra and to go on sale. Because once you go on sale, there's no going back... Because if something goes on sale, it means it was overproduced."

Happy to give a case in point, the businessman and London College of Fashion graduate gave Louis Vuitton's inventory model as an example of what he is trying to avoid for his brand.
If something goes on sale, it means it was overproduced

"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," he explained. "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. 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."

Explaining how the brand puts a cap on the number of items one retailer can buy (10 pairs of jeans and for Italian stores only four jersey tops) in order to keep the items special, Gvasalia also addressed the high price point of the brand that sees hooded tops fly off the shelves for over the £400 mark.

"There are a few reasons. 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," he said. "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."