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."