Vetements runway slated for July 1 in Paris

By

Dominique Muret

Published
May 15, 2018

Vetements is returning to Haute Couture Week in Paris but won't feature on the official calendar. Having made something of a habit of switching between formats and Fashion Weeks, the hip Paris-based brand, led by Balenciaga creative director Demna Gvasalia, has once again chosen to get ahead of the traditional Fashion Week calendar and will show its spring-summer 2019 women's and menswear collection in Paris at 5.30 PM on July 1.

The announcement was made via a video posted on the label's Instagram account featuring concert photos and techno music. No details have yet been provided on the show's location. 

The show will take place on the first day of Paris' Haute Couture Week, which runs July 1 through 5. However, as pointed out by a Vetements spokesperson, the presentation does not feature on the official calendar, despite the fact that this is not the brand's first show during this period. 

The streetwear-inspired brand raised eyebrows when it first pulled out of Women's Fashion Week in July 2016, choosing instead to show as part of the Haute Couture calendar, where it participated as an invited member. The following year, Vetements stepped away from Couture Week – perhaps too mainstream for its tastes – opting this time for a showless presentation at Paris' Men's Fashion Week. The brand finally returned to the catwalk this January, still during Men's Fashion Week, but already off-calendar, as, for practical reasons, the show didn't comply with the regulations of France's Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.

With its latest move, it would appear that Vetements has turned these untimely changes and twists into something of a marketing strategy. The announcement comes on the heels of a recent controversy involving the fashion house, which is piloted by the Gvasalia brothers, Demna being supported in the venture by brother and executive director, Guram. At the end of March, the American website and magazine Highsnobsociety published an article alluding to falling sales at the brand, information immediately refuted by Guram Gvasalia, who argued that Vetements had, in fact, seen 50% growth compared to the previous year.