朦胧的欲望对象：Vetements高级定制

Vetements背后的“商业头脑”、Demna Gvasalia的弟弟GuramGvasalia图片来源：Narya Abhimata 从时尚角度而言，这算是条爆炸新闻：诞生刚满两年、“只专注服装本身”的新兴品牌Vetements也将与高高在上、高贵排外的高定为伍，于今年7月在巴黎高定周发布其新系列。这条消息在本周放出：来自前苏联格鲁吉亚共和国的Demna Gvasalia（34岁）和GuramGvasalia（30岁）两兄弟已受法国时装权威管理机构巴黎高级时装工会之邀，将在2016年7月的巴黎高定周上作为开幕品牌于7月3日发布Vetements 2017 春／夏系列。这场成衣秀将包含部分以“诠释高定”为理念而设计的造型。Guram的哥哥Demna Gvasalia每周都要将精力分配到Vetements和Balenciaga的设计工作中图片来源： @SuzyMenkesVogue“我们是作为客座成员参加本次高定周的，但洽谈过程很顺利，因为我们将改变整季的结构，”Guram解释道。如果被抛上台面的Demna算是品牌的“阳”面，那么负责商业运作的他就是品牌的“阴”面。“出于尊重，我得告诉大家，”Guram继续阐述他们的新战略。“这个新系列会比较特别，但其中的部分单品确定会在不久后和圣诞节前问世，”他说。“你也知道，圣诞节是个绝好时机：孩子们都从祖父母那儿拿到了钱，对于想要给彼此一个惊喜、互赠礼物的人而言，也是出手的时候。”说得好像大热品牌Vetements还需要圣诞老人帮着叫卖似的！ Vetements 2016春／夏系列图片来源：InDigital基本款、超大廓形、休闲运动风格、花朵印花裙以及火爆全球的那款“帽衫”，由于Kanye West太爱它，现在已经成为全球人人想要的单品，这些服装正疯狂大卖，不断从零售店和网购平台发往全球各地。Guram告诉我，通过在高端精品购物网站Net-a-Porter的销售，他们目前已经实现了83%的实际销售量。关于那件受到狂热追捧的“DHL”红黄T恤，Guram说：“我们从DHL那边拿到了许可。然后DHL的总裁自己也穿上了！还穿着它玩自拍！其实这件T恤是用特殊面料制成的，并且限量生产250件。人们抱怨卖太贵（每件约330美元），但情况是这样，如果一件T恤你只做250件而不是数以百万计的批量生产，那价格也只能是这么贵。”2016春／夏系列受到热捧的DHL T恤图片来源：InDigital而现在Demna还接手了Balenciaga的设计工作，又引领了新一波追捧潮。“我们的理念是要达到一个平衡点，”年轻的首席执行官 Guram说道。“如果到了季末，还有货品在售的话，那说明我们的产量过大了。如果你的销售量永远比市场需求的少一件，那就永远都能卖光。如果多卖一件，那对品牌的均衡感知力就破坏了。这不仅事关供需相应，还有配送范围的问题。我们及时配送，没有补货，没有再生产。”街头风Vetements花朵印花裙图片来源：Getty“我们生产的那件金属印花帽衫，人人都在穿，”他继续说道。“那件衣服在秀场上荒诞不经地一亮相，明星们马上差不多人手一件，而我还收到了不下五、六、七千封邮件，说想要那件帽衫。这件衣服现在在eBay上已经被炒到了3500欧元！但我们不考虑复刻了，尽管一旦再产的话我们只靠这一款设计就能赚翻了，但我们不能这样做，对于那些已经买到的人太不敬了。现在人们都在害怕买不到想要的单品，所以一旦新系列上市，他们会从心里层面产生渴望的冲动。” Vetements 2016秋／冬系列图片来源：InDigital“有点像Apple营销产品的路数；他们把专卖店内布置得像教堂一般，而且一旦开了新店，店内总是伴随着音乐，人们亦蜂拥而至，”他说。我确实注意到了，上一季的Vetements秀就是选在一座教堂内举办的。而随着求知欲越来越强，Demna与Guram两兄弟在巴黎装饰艺术博物馆参观了由Pamela Golbin策展的《时尚与织物》（Fashion and Textiles）展后，才发现Balenciaga的创始人Cristóbal Balenciaga的家紧邻着他们办秀的这间教堂，而Cristóbal Balenciaga生前每天都会来这间教堂做祈祷。当我目瞪口呆地听着纤细、蓄着胡渣的Guram Gvasalia跟我讲这些的时候，我们坐在伦敦的苏富比餐厅，而这时我想起两周前与他在巴黎左岸一间餐馆见面的相似场景，还有一次与哥哥Demna在巴黎的单独会面。这两位原本籍籍无名，却陡然颠覆了先前固有的时装设计与营销理念的兄弟搭档，他们到底有着怎样的故事？ Vetements的灵感谬斯Lotta Volkova Adam为2016秋／冬秀打头阵图片来源：InDigital他们来自格鲁吉亚，更确切的说，是阿布哈兹（Abkhazia）自治区。前苏联解体后，这里饱受内战的摧残，因此在Demna年仅12岁时，全家人抛家舍业逃离故土，只带走了家庭相册。他们在乌克兰躲避了两年时间，随后兄弟俩在前苏联区划内四处流离，在这种状态下度过了余下的少年岁月。1993年，Demna看到了人生中的第一本Vogue杂志，就是这本杂志引他走上了时装之路并激发了他去安特卫普学习时装的决心。在安特卫普受训期间，他师从Linda Loppa，而后者现已成为安特卫普皇家艺术学院时装学院院长。同时，当时还是一头长发的Guram前往德国的商业学校深造，过上了“身穿Ralph Lauren并开始享受人生”的生活。他一口气读下了四个学位：“一个法律学位、两个商科学位、还有一个在伦敦时装学院读的硕士学位。” 造型师Pernille Teisbaek身穿Vetements大衣图片来源： Getty两兄弟都精通俄语、格鲁吉亚语、英语、法语、意大利语、德语等六门语言，而Demna因为在安特卫普求学的经历，还“会说一点点比利时的佛兰芒语”，而由于Guram伴侣的帮忙，他“德语已臻纯熟”。“Guram的伴侣是俄罗斯裔，还是位出色的作家，他花了不少时间来纠正我的德语，不过现在他已经对我的德语水平十分自豪了。”与许多饱受战争之苦的犹太人一样，两兄弟告诉我，他们并不真的“属于某一片土地”，而Guram每天都要陪追随着他无止境流浪的法国裔犹太祖母说说话。Vetements的造型师兼灵感谬斯Lotto Volkova Adam身穿该品牌花朵印花连身裙图片来源： @SuzyMenkesVogue 作为弟弟，Guram似乎故意选择了一条与哥哥不同的路，或者用他自己的话来说：“对我和Demna而言，我们是一起长大的兄弟，但我们各自有不同的人生路要走。”Guram是不折不扣的商业鬼才，也是个战略的巫师，他对网络时代的时尚、纷杂的名人圈子以及如何恰到好处地管理预期等问题做了一系列分析，我的脑袋都快应付不了这么大的信息量了。四年前，他还写过一本名为《零号身材》（SizeZero）的书，他说这是“一本指导你管理精神生活并帮助你寻找自我的书”。Vetements玩转美式高校运动衫造型图片来源：Getty“我喜欢与供需曲线共舞，”他说他坚持对多达200间店铺的全球分销商进行完全掌控，这样才能确保Vetement这个品牌的发展。他计划整个八月都待在美国：“我要到每个有合作伙伴的主要城市看看，看一下店面的情况，了解一下这个地方是不是适合我们的品牌。”同时，他也在研究品牌在韩国获得的巨大成功，由于受到韩国偶像红星G-Dragon的青睐，Vetements已经跃居亚洲顶级潮牌之列。Vetements 2016秋／冬系列图片来源：InDigital我想到了Gvasalia兄弟曾作为膀臂共同效力过的Martin Margiela，而非那个在纸醉金迷的1980年代、因发出不和谐声响而显得孤独的Martin。我也很好奇，为什么Demna没有选择被同侪们公认为“一代设计宗师”的Cristóbal Balenciaga作为高定秀的舞台。Balenciaga 2016秋／冬系列造型之一，这是Demna Gvasalia上任后为这一法国老牌时装屋献上的首个系列图片来源：@SuzyMenkesVogue待到Vetements为巴黎高定周打响头炮时，他们会带来怎样的高定造型呢？Guram到达苏富比时身穿窄瘦修身、风格近乎经典的考究黑色大衣。但我从他口中听闻了Vetements循环再造牛仔裤的来龙去脉，以及他们那些经过复杂处理的牛仔装为什么绝对值得单件高于1000欧元的“天价”，他们把被扔掉的废旧裤子拼缀起来、进行去形态化处理、再重新塑形，才得以化腐朽为神奇。光是每件单品的手工耗时就多达六个小时。炙手可热的Vetements牛仔裤，每一条都要经过特殊的面料处理和复杂的手工图片来源：InDigitalVetements打造的高定牛仔裤。确实是个不错的名头。Suzy将于5月21日（周六）在伦敦的Vogue时尚盛会（Vogue Festival）上与Vetements首席执行官GuramGvasalia进行对谈，主题为：“Vetements：美丽新世界”（Vetements: A Brave New World）。对谈地点位于伦敦肯辛顿宫花园的East Albert草坪，这是Vogue World环节的一部分。对谈内容主要集中于法国设计界为什么集体笃信时装领域目前的运营模式名存实亡，以及他们会如何为之再赋生机。更多详情请见活动页面：-events/vogue-festival-2016/programme/saturday.Guram Gvasalia, the brother with the business brain behind VetementsPicture credit: Narya AbhimataIN FASHION TERMS, it is news that shocks: two-year-old Vetements, a fledgling brand focusing on "just clothes" is staging a show alongside rarefied and exclusive haute couture in Paris this July. The announcement was made this week: the Gvasalia brothers Demna, 34, and Guram, 30, originally from Georgia in the former Soviet Union, have been accepted by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, French fashion's ruling body, to present their Spring/Summer 2017 collection on July 3 as an official kick-off to the couture season. This ready-to-wear show will incorporate some looks constructed with "interpretations of haute couture" Demna Gvasalia, Guram's brother, who divides his week between designs for Vetements and BalenciagaPicture credit: @SuzyMenkesVogue"We are guest members of the Couture, but there wasn't a lot of negotiation because we are changing the whole season's structure," explained Guram, who plays business ying to Demna's creative yang. "I needed to tell people out of respect," Guram continued, as he laid bare the new strategy."The collections will be very special but some of the pieces will be available quite soon and before Christmas for sure," he said. "Christmas is a good time you know - everyone gets money from their grandparents and it's a time when people want to surprise each other and give presents." As if Vetements needed Father Christmas to hawk their wares! Vetements Spring/Summer 2016Picture credit: InDigitalThe apparently basic, over-sized, sporty clothes, the floral dresses and the famous "hoodie", so beloved of Kanye West that it has become a universal object of desire, fly out of stores and off on-line platforms. Guram tells me that upscale website Net-a-Porter has achieved an 83 per cent sell-through of the current range.Then there are the cult yellow and red "DHL" T-shirts. "With DHL we have the licensing," Guram explains, "and the CEO of DHL is wearing the T-shirt! He takes selfies with it! It's actually a special fabric, and a limited production of 250 pieces. People complain about the price (some $330) but the point is if you do 250 pieces and not one million T-shirts this is what the price is." The cult DHL T-Shirt for Spring/Summer 2016Picture credit: InDigitalAnd now that Demna has taken over the design direction of Balenciaga, there is a second stream of clothes with a cult following. "The idea is to reach your equilibrium," says young chief executive Guram. "If at the end of the season there is merchandise on sale, for me it means that it was over-produced. If you sell one piece less than the market desires, then it is sold out. If you sell one piece extra, then it goes on sale and damages your perception of the brand. It's not just about when supply meets demand, but also about the delivery spectrum. We deliver on time, there is no re-stock and no reproduction. Street style in floral-print dress by VetementsPicture credit: Getty"We had this hoody with a metallic print that everyone wore," he continued. "All the celebrities wore it and it went to this ridiculous stage when I have five, six, seven thousand emails requesting the hoody. It's now on eBay for 3,500 euros! We don't reproduce it - although if we did we could do a million a day with this one design. But we don't, out of respect to the people who bought it. Now people are afraid that they won't be able to get the pieces. So when the new collection hits the market the longing is a psychological thing." Vetements, Autumn/Winter 2016Picture credit: InDigital"It's like Apple and the way they market their products; they make the inside of their stores look like a church and for a new store they have music and thousands of people gathering,"
he explains. It does not escape my notice that the last Vetements collection was held inside a church. And, curiouser and curiouser, Demna and Guram discovered after the event from Pamela Golbin, Chief Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, that Cristóbal Balenciaga's home backed on to the very same church their fashion was held in, and that he would go there every day to pray.
As I sit, mesmerised, with the slight, bearded Guram Gvasalia at Sotheby's café in London, I remember a similar meeting with him at a restaurant in Paris' Left Bank two weeks ago, and a separate meeting in Paris with Demna. What is the real story of these two brothers who came from nowhere to up-end previous conceptions about designing and marketing fashion? Vetements' muse, Lotta Volkova Adam, opens the Autumn/Winter 2016 showPicture credit: InDigitalThey come from Georgia, or more precisely Abkhazia, which was overwhelmed by civil war following the break-up of the Soviet Union, so when Demna was 12 the family fled their home, taking only their photo albums. The family spent two years in Ukraine and the brothers spent the rest of their teens in various locations in the former USSR. In 1993, Demna saw his first ever Vogue magazine, which drew him towards fashion and inspired him to study in Antwerp, where he was taught by Linda Loppa, then head of Fashion at the Royal Academy Antwerp.
Meanwhile the long-haired Guram went to business school in Germany, "wearing Ralph Lauren and being happy with my life". He garnered four degrees: "one in law, two in business and a Masters at the London College of Fashion". Stylist Pernille Teisbaek in a Vetements coatPicture credit: GettyBoth brothers speak six languages: Russian, Georgian, English, French, Italian and German, plus Demna's "little bit of Flemish" from his Antwerp years and "very good German" courtesy of Guram's partner, "who is not just Russian, he is an amazing writer - it took him years to correct me but now he says he is proud of me when I speak it."Like many Jewish people, buffeted by wars, both brothers told me that they do not really "belong anywhere", and Guram speaks every day to his French Jewish grandmother who follows his endless worldwide travels. Lotto Volkova Adam, the Vetements stylist and muse, in a floral dress by the brandPicture credit: @SuzyMenkesVogueAs the younger brother, Guram seems deliberately to have followed a different path, or, as he puts it: "With me and Demna, we are brothers and grew up together, but we're both on very different roads in life."Guram is a business fiend, a strategic wizard filling my head fit to burst with his analysis of fashion in the era of on-line, the celebrity circus, and managing expectations just so. Four years ago he wrote a book called "Size Zero", "a guide on spiritual management and how you find yourself". Vetements play with the American college sweatshirt lookPicture credit: Getty"For me, I like the idea of playing with the supply and demand curve," he says, insisting on taking complete control of global distribution to 200 stores in which to develop the Vetements brand. His August will be spent on a month-long tour of North America, "going to every major city where we have partners just to see the stores and understand if it is the right place for us to be".At the same time, he is surveying a successful conquest of South Korea, where K-Pop stars like G-Dragon have put Vetements on the hip Asian fashion map. Vetements Autumn/Winter 2016Picture credit: InDigitalI think of Martin Margiela, where the Gvasalia brothers both worked, but not when Martin himself was a lone voice lowering the raucous tone of fashion in the opulent 1980s. I also wonder why Cristóbal Balenciaga, recognised by his peers as "the master of us all", would not have been Demna's choice for an haute couture show. A look for Balenciaga, Autumn/Winter 2016 from Vetements' Demna Gvasalia in his first collection for the French fashion housePicture credit: @SuzyMenkesVogueWhat will Vetements' show with couture look like as it kicks off the new Paris season? Guram arrives at Sotheby's in a slim, almost classic, black tailored coat. But I have just heard from him the complete history of Vetements' re-cycled jeans, and why they are well worth their more-than-1,000 euro price for the complex treatment of denim, de-bacterialised and reconstructed from a patchwork of cast-away trousers to make the old new again. Handwork required on each piece: six hours. The highly-sought-after Vetements jeans, which have special fabric treatments and handworkPicture credit: InDigitalHaute jeans by Vetements. It has a certain ring to it. Suzy will be talking to Guram Gvasalia, CEO of Vetements, at the Vogue Festival in London on Saturday, 21 May. "Vetements: A Brave New World", will be at the Vogue World section on the East Albert Lawn of Kensington Palace Gardens. The talk will focus on why the French design collective believes that the fashion world's operating model is defunct - and how they intend to reboot it. The talk is sold out, but you can follow this link for other events for which tickets are still available: -events/vogue-festival-2016/programme/saturday. 朦胧的欲望对象：Vetements高级定制朦胧的欲望对象：Vetements高级定制