Fashion Revolution: Demna Gvasalia A detailed analysis of the esthetic that turned him into one of the most followed names of the contemporary scene

Demna Gvasalia.

Born in Georgia and transplanted in Belgium, where he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, before working for Martin Margiela and Louis Vuitton, with the help of his brother and faithful CEO Guram, has become a key figure in contemporary fashion.

Cynical capitalist, revolutionary, visionary, opinions on this talent are diverse and often conflicting, but the hype around him and his brands Vetements and, recently, Balenciaga is huge. In a few years, he changed the way people conceived the fashion, the beautiful, which in his case often coincides with the ugly.

How? With an aesthetic that is rooted in his post-Soviet childhood but also in the French and Berlin underground, in the street, the culture of skaters, punk, the work of Margiela, a certain idea of roles, social uniforms.

The idea is simple: make clothes that sell and wear.

Because the fashion of Gvasalia is practical and based on the product, a special garment, not seasoned, that can enter the wardrobe of people and can easily be mixed with the rest. So they were born pieces that became cults, like DHL tee, the black trench with the words "Vetements", spandex pantashoes, the maxi sweaters and many others that have won fashionistas and stars from Rihanna to Kanye West.

The secret of success? Mood underground, attention to detail, a gameplay with proportions and rough collections, independent of trends.

Demna studies, dissects and redefines the essence of fashion by creating clothes destined to be worn.It recreates the garments, the oversized volumes, and reinvent the material aspect with unexpected textures and textures. His, is an anarchist mix and match of street style and tailoring, playing with overdrawn jackets and oversized pieces, elongated sleeves, decoded shapes, punk lurking, 90's memorabilia and fetish street.

REVOLUTION

Irreverent, revolutionary, and contemplative observer, the man from the East wipes out genders. Embracing a fashion without sex, gender fluid, which he believes it's a mirror of the reality we are living. On the catwalk alternate man and woman, but the distance between the two is almost imperceptible: they have the same haircuts, they wear the same clothes. No model, no perfect body, he works with friends, with selected people in clubs, social media, in his crew.

Demna Gvasalia is not only a designer but also part of a collective, a person who lives, works and feeds the inputs of a cohort of friends and acquaintances who advise and inspire him. Not only his brother Guram, who looks after the financial and practical aspects but also, and above all, the stylist Lotta Volkova whom the Guardian defines as "Brain, muse, collaborator and model". The contribution of this woman in shaping and bringing to success the post-soviet style is crucial.

Here are some of the aspects that made Gvasalia the designer of the moment.

#1 Ugliness as a form of Inspiration

"If you love it, you love it. You don't care which season it is. The approach that we've chosen is not the classic approach of 'This season we are going to do butterflies'or 'This season is the '70s'; if we want a white oversized t-shirt inside a more fitted collection, we should just do it because that girl, she wants to wear that t-shirt with those jeans. It's a wardrobe in the end. When we dress, we don't wear a total look; we wear pieces".

To conceive garments as individual entities, a beautiful jacket, a great pair of trousers: this is the genius, as much as trivial, insight that has contributed to the success of Mr Gvasalia.

all images via Vogue
Cover Image Pierre-Ange Carlotti