Drumrolls at the ready: the early award for best invitation of the autumn/winter 2018 show season goes to... Vetements, who have summed up the never-ending, ever-increasing global, cross-cultural affinity for the dogs and cats (and goats) of Instagram with a moving image fanfare to their men’s and women’s extravaganza on January 19th in Paris. In a candid Q&A for the January issue of British Vogue titled What Would Demna Do?, creative director Demna Gvasalia teased his love of the cyberspace phenomenon. Asked what he would do to cheer up a sad friend, he answered: "I would show them the cats of Instagram."
Vetements’ homage to social media’s favourite pastime comes in the wake of a 2017 when Gvasalia broke the fashion department of the internet more than once. The IKEA-esque bag he designed for Balenciaga - where he also serves as designer - spawned an entire capsule campaign from the Swedish homeware giant, while his election-inspired Balenciaga motifs, not dissimilar to those of Bernie Sanders’ campaign, got a mention from the presidential candidate in a cable news interview. Vetements now has several fan-fuelled Instagram accounts dedicated to them, including Petememe where cutesy animals feature in fictional campaigns for the brand.
"Those things I don’t react to," he shrugged in another British Vogueinterview in August. "For me it’s a bit like the whole Vetememe thing," Gvasalia continued, referring to the unofficial meme outlet devoted to the brand. "The internet craziness… I don’t want to get involved. It becomes a bit slapstick. I don’t like slapstick." What of that show invitation, then? Gvasalia has a way with transforming life's most basic pleasures into something new and subversive; making the ordinary extraordinary, if you will. "I’m working on a project that will be my answer to all of that, in January. I’m going to answer with a collection. You will see," he said of the internet craze surrounding Vetements.
"It’s maybe something most people think you should never do. I feel like this excites me. We had a lot of options: what could it be? So I thought, let's take the worst and let's work with that. Something nobody would expect you to do. For me it’s linked to the past of Vetements; where we come from.” On January 19th at 7pm Paris time, we’ll get to see for ourselves.
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