Guram Gvasalia Discusses the Spirit Collaboration In Recent Interview
The Vetements CEO also reveals partnerships never fulfilled or kept under the radar.
Whether you’re a fan or not, Vetements has undeniably disrupted the fashion industry, becoming one of the most talked about brands in recent years. Behind the name are brothers Demna and Guram Gvasalia — Demna designs while Guram handles more of the business side. We often hear from Demna since he’s closest to the actual clothes, however in a recent interview, Vogue sat down with Guram to give us some substantial insight into their approach to collaboration, as well as projects which never surfaced or stayed under the radar. Amongst those discussed are Levi’s, Reebok, Tommy Hilfiger, Umbro, Ikea and of course DHL. Check out the excerpt below, and see the interview in full here.
Vetements’s Spring 2017 collection was entirely about the act of collaboration…what informed your choice of collaborators?
There has always been this healthy, and sometimes not so healthy, competition in the industry. We never felt like we needed to compete with anyone. The one and only idea was to create a perfect wardrobe for a person.
Usually, people’s wardrobes do not consist of one single brand. A wardrobe will include items done by different brands, depending on the product category. So, this is when the idea came, to take the most iconic brands in certain product categories and bring them together, like the sticks in the story, to create a strong bundle, a perfect wardrobe.
What were the successes and challenges of those collaborations?
We had a blast to be able to work with 20 amazing brands in one single season. That season was exceptional and one of its kind. Therefore, it is funny to see that now it is becoming almost a must for brands to come up with as many collaborations as possible, whether those make sense or not, just for the sake of it. Following your heart is much more important than following trends that others create.
What’s the ultimate satisfaction in collaborating?
Collaboration is an act of working together to achieve the same goal. For fashion brands, the goal should be more than making money and creating hype; it should be making product that is true to identities of both companies, that makes sense in the current state of their business, that is honest to the people who will wear and cherish it for a lifetime.
