Cheating Luxury (Article)

CHEATING

LUXURY

BY GERMAN BARAEV

“OUR PLANET IS DYING”

Yet we view and clamour for the latest fashion fad. We’ve all been guilty of it; one way or another. Our eyes smothered by an endless stream of Insta posts, subtly promoting one brand after another. In an era of limitless consumption, we find our needs and desires never satisfied. The cyclical nature of the fashion industry promotes this feast of consumption; trends set by luxury fashion houses trickle down to your local Zara or H&M stores. A clothing cycle instituted in perpetuity.

Luxury fashion works its magic; one day we find skin-tight silhouettes, paired with sharp toed boots attractive and luxurious, the next we observe a lineup of models drowning in oversized garments, normcore fashion and almost ironic clothes gracing the top runways in Paris and New York. Designers such as Hedi Slimane and Demna Gvasalia have made a career turning the old, undesired and unfashionable into the luxurious.

It is fascinating how Hedi Slimane manages to still gather crowds who flock to see his new iteration of skinny, heroin-chic models trotting the runway in familiar monochromatic rockstar apparel. While Hedi’s new iteration of skin-tight rockstar clothing doesn’t lack in luxury, it can seem a bit repetitive. If his silhouettes and bone-thin models dazzled at Dior in the early 2000s, it seems like time has lapped the French visionary.

However, a rabid and obstinately obsessive cult following backs Hedi and his creations every season. For a fan of Hedi, it doesn’t matter that he designs largely the same clothes every year, what matters is the imprint of a man who shaped the menswear industry to his own image.

That image; a skinny, tall, waiflike figure dressed in Mick Jagger’s finest, is not a new or revolutionary concept. Hedi, in the process of creating his signature aesthetic, relied on the lessons of the past. Skinny jeans, cowboy boots and leather jackets are all staples of the 60s and 70s rock scene. As such, clothes inspiring Hedi himself can be found gathering dust in vintage stores and market stalls all across the world. Therefore, if you could attain Hedi’s image but not consume Celine’s new collection, why is there such a desire for his clothing every season?

It is the feeling of luxury, the self-satisfied grin you get when you walk out of a boutique store, the feeling of euphoria that you receive as you pace down the street with a familiar clank of your new wooden-soled cowboy boots. What differentiates Hedi’s contemporary designs at Celine and the clothes that inspired him, is the feeling of self-importance and validation. That you, and others like you, wear luxury designer clothing.

This self-imposed sentiment of validation is completely necessary to keep luxury brands at the frontier of the fashion industry.

Stylists: Urte Gumuliauskaite and German Baraev Models: Charlotte Bailey, Portia and Juju Greenig, Robin Kwon Photographer:Charlie Bentley

The legacy of a brand might promote us to buy into their image, or the work of a particular designer, or a certain piece that is popular. Nevertheless, as the frontier of fashion, the trends luxury houses create will eventually trickle down to your local retailer. For example, Zara parasitically borrows, some might say steals, designs from luxury houses and releases them; 20 times a year. In 2017, Zara had 20 collections in one year. Fast fashion retailers are polluting and killing our planet by encouraging needless consumption and promising a smidge of the self-satisfaction that is received from buying luxury designer pieces, with poor-quality imitations of the real thing.

Being inspired by the designs of the past is a natural affliction to many creatives. What really sets apart the great from the good, the influential from the important is the ability to alter trends of history and create new modes of fashion. One designer who excels in turning the old, unfavourable, undesirable to the luxurious, extravagant and decadent is Demna Gvasalia.

Demna’s work at Balenciaga and Vetements might seem uncouth to many. Unsophisticated models draped in grandad clothes, ugly, oversized, hideous sneakers paired with unconventional silhouettes and a post-Soviet aesthetic to boot. However, in the same vein as Hedi, Demna traces his designs over the mementos of history.

Inspired by a post-Soviet lack of opulence, Demna’s clothing satirises luxury. Concepts that we do traditionally view as luxurious are sold in masses by Balenciaga. Inspired by the motifs of the past, Demna’s work alters and evolves clothing past beauty and to grotesqueness. In Demna’s world, luxury is all that isn’t luxurious; models who walk the Balenciaga runway are more or less regular looking people, not the demigods gracing other runways at Paris.

To possess Demna’s work requires vast resources. To own any designer requires vast resources. Nevertheless, the aesthetics of famed designers can be replicated for a reasonable price. If history inspires our favourite designers, then that history can clothe us too. The second-hand and vintage economy is on a sharp stratospheric rise. A more sensible and eco-friendly way to drape ourselves in the latest trends is just down the road from you. Of course, you won’t always get lucky. Thrifting and hunting for good pieces is just that, a hunt and sometimes you end up hungry. Yet, I promise, finding an incredible piece of vintage clothing among a pile of garbage beats the luxury of the clean-cut, sterile and boring boutique store any day of the week.

“Still, Luxury comes at a price.”