Does Luxury Fashion Have An Overproduction Problem?

Earlier this year, four of Harrods’ store windows on Brompton Road were taken over by the young, independent label "Vetements" with the VETEMENTS logo featured on their fronts. The VETEMENTSxHarrods installation featured stockpiles of clothes donated by Harrods’ four-thousand employees. “The main purpose of this installation…to remind the general public about overproduction. In a world where fashion is so fast today, the windows are like a wake up: ‘Hello, slow down, people—it’s too much!” Says Guram Gvasalia, CEO of Vetements

According to Gvasalia: “The problem with sustainability today is that people look at it from the wrong perspective. Yes, where you produce and how you produce is super important. But what people are overseeing is something that’s right in front of our eyes: it’s about how much brands produce and how much consumers buy,” says Gvasalia “since my first-ever interview I’ve been saying this: the basic thing of economics is the supply meeting demand. If you go to a shop and you see something on sale, it means it’s been overproduced.” He continues that “for brands to become more sustainable today, they need to do one simple thing: have their supply meet their demand. It’s like throwing away food in a world full of hunger. Our planet is sick because of us, because we want more and more and more, without thinking of generations to come. He tells Vogue.

Gvasalia had allegedly asked other brands to donate unused stock to the installations, but claims that “Nobody wanted to take part. Not a single brand; really huge corporations. Everyone is afraid of admitting that they make more clothes than they can sell,” Gvasalia told Vogue.

Though fashion critic Sarah Mower poses the questions "can they have it both ways?" she attests. "Vetements is part of that same luxury system" says critic Mower. "The Harrods installation is there to direct customers to indulge in more consumption at the new Vetements in-house women’s store on the Superbrands floor, and in the men’s department in the basement."

Her Majesty The Queen Makes Surprise Appearance at London Fashion Week

Image courtesy of AP Press

The young British designer, who’s worked at Michael Van Der Ham, Christian Dior, and Richard James, received a surprise visit during his AW18 show from her Majesty the Queen for first time in her reign as Queen, to present him with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design - "as a tribute to the industry," and "new, young talent" who "have contributed to British fashion,"  she said.

The award, initiated in recognition of the role the fashion industry plays in society and diplomacy, will be handed annually to an emerging British fashion designer who shows exceptional talent and originality, while demonstrating value to the community and/or strong sustainable policies, according to the British Fashion Council. The London-based designer Quinn is the first to receive the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.  The award was originally thought up by Angela Kelly - personal advisor to Her Majesty, and the British Fashion Council was instrumental in hand picking him for the prize.

Her Majesty toured the London based Designer Showrooms down at Strand meeting other designers before presenting Quinn with the award on the final day of London Fashion Week, which has brought hundreds of designers, buyers and press to London for a series of catwalk displays, presentations and events.

The emerging designer Richard Quinn holds a B.A. and M.A. from Central Saint Martins, and graduated from the M.A. program in 2016, going onto later launch his line that year. His evocative show included a model wearing what looked to be a decorated green motorcycle helmet with a dark visor along with black and white polka dot leggings and a gauzy top with different size dots, with models faces covered with elaborate print designed headscarfs.

The show was attended by Wintour, Naomi Campbell, designer Stella McCartney among other personage part of the fashion scene. 

The award will further help support new talent.

Update Feb 22nd: (article updated to amend an earlier typo -  to read 'courtesy of AP Press.')

Metamorphosis; Edward Enninful Addresses Fashions Diversity Problem With His Debut Cover For British Vogue

                        Edward Enninful Fashion illustration created by @fashionlawbusiness

British Vogue is addressing its diversity issue with new editor-in-chief Edward Enninful revealing his first ever British Vogue cover, featuring 25-year-old Ghanaian-British model Adwoa Aboah.

The much anticipated December 2017 issue  -  marks the beginning of a new era at the magazine,  as Vogue takes a new turn - with Enninful having previously pledged that under his reign as editor-in-chief that more diversity will be embraced. The cover, starring Adwoa Aboah, styled by Edward Enninful and photographed by Steven Meisel, according to Vogue "will land on newsstands on November 10." And along with rising model Adwoa Aboah, feautures Victoria Beckham, Letitia Wright, Glenda Jackson, Grace Coddington, Millie Bobby Brown, Christopher Bailey, Gwendoline Christie and Jourdan Dunn, among more.

Enninful, awarded an OBE for services to diversity in fashion in 2016, has highlighted his desire to further increase diversity at the renowned high fashion publication and true to his word has done just that, with this months feauture cover.

Image courtesy of British Vogue; Photographer: Steven Meisel/Vogue

Speaking to the BBC  Enninful said: “My Vogue is about being inclusive, it’s about diversity. Showing different women, different body shapes, different races, class...tackling gender."

"You are going to see all different colours, shapes, ages, genders, religions. That I am very excited about. You are going to see less of models who don’t look so healthy.”

Referring to his desire to "create a magazine that was open and friendly."

Signalling A Change In The Fashion Industry?

This comes as a momental juncture for the fashion publication, as Vogue has long been criticised for failing to represent diversity. In the past 12 years and 146 Vogue covers that have been shot under the reign of respected industry pioneer and former editor Alexandra Shulman -  not one of those have featured a model of colour, and addressing this lack of diversity in fashion, Shulman previously has blamed this on the consumer arguing that: "in a society where the mass of the consumers are white and where, on the whole, mainstream ideas sell, it’s unlikely there will be a huge rise in the number of leading black models."

Yet however, other editors like the late Franca Sozanni have chosen to deal with the issue of diversity head on - using her position of influence and power as editor of Italian Vogue to inspire and change the face of the fashion -  for example, producing an all black issue of Vogue Italia and winning the Swarovski Award for Positive Change in 2016 for taking on big issues such as “diversity, ecology and feminism” and also for her “tireless commitment to fundraising for local and international charities.”

"We cannot use only these girls who are the same," Sozzani says. "We go to the East Side and Russia. We go looking for tall, thin and blue eyes. But we have to scout in Africa, everywhere."

That brings us to the question of how and in what ways culture is produced?

Metamorphosis

Image courtesy of British Vogue; Photographer: Steven Meisel/Vogue

As scholar Sally Engle Merry writes, “every discourse contains a more or less coherent set of categories and theories of action: a vocabulary for naming events and persons and a theory for explaining actions and relationships. . . . Discourses are rooted in particular institutions and embody their culture. Actors operate within one or another available discourses”

But we forget that discourses are also constructed and as Barthes and Bourdieu would probably agree have the ability to construct and also reinforce culture. 

Whereas, only a few years ago it was rare to see a model of colour featured in a runway lineup, today, the spotlight on models of colour is increasing. As Aleydis Nissen, PhD researcher at Cardiff University notes - "Enninful, is the first in a new generation of editors who understand the power they have to change the whole fashion industry."