Vetements to unveil limited L.A.-inspired pieces at Maxfield pop-up event
New York Fashion Week kicks off today, but the fashion world isn’t done with Los Angeles just yet. Vetements is readying its “set” at Maxfield for an open-to-the-public “Dry Cleaning” event tonight, at which customers can shop the store’s regular Vetements merchandise as well as a few limited-edition pieces created just for the evening, and a selection of next season’s pieces that aren’t shipping to other retailers for a few more months.
As he took in the sun on Maxfield’s wooden deck while checking e-mails on three black iPhones, Guram Gvasalia, Vetements’ chief operating officer, paused to describe the capsule, which was still zipped up in garment bags as crews worked to install a real rotating clothing rack imported from a New York dry cleaner, inside the glass Jean Prouvé house that sits in the parking lot.
“There are going to be a few goodies that you can’t get anywhere else, sold in quantities of only 50. Some will reference Los Angeles — there will be T-shirts that say ‘Beverly Hills,’ for example,” he said. Decals were being placed on the glass to mimic a dry cleaner, with a menu board denoting retail prices for pants, jackets and shirts, instead of dry cleaning prices.
Maxfield’s corner window was being filled with bags of vintage flea market clothing, to denote both the waste in the apparel industry as well as the possibilities for repurposing used garments. Vetements creative director Demna Gvasalia spends days on end scouring vintage stores for pieces to deconstruct and remake into new ones.
“The market is so saturated, there is so much product, nobody really needs more clothes,’ said Guram Gvasalia. “I hope people will think about whether these things are really something they want to have. If they decide they don’t, that’s OK, too.” Chances are, customers will feel the opposite, but Gvasalia said they would limit purchases to one stockkeeping unit of an item per customer to curtail resale and make sure everyone has a fair shot at the merchandise.
