Remember When Gigi Recreated Kim’s Taped-Up Look At Vetements

Hadid, who would later go on to walk Victoria Beckham’s runway in a see-now-buy-now Atonement-green dress, took her turn on Guram Gvasalia’s catwalk, alongside Travis Scott and J Balvin, in a minidress stuck together with wound-up DHL tape. It was a bombastic reminder of the pool of everyday inspirations that both Gvasalia brothers (Demna and Guram founded Vetements in 2014, before Demna departed in 2019 to pursue Balenciaga full time) dip into.

These were, after all, the siblings who first shook up the traditional show format with a co-ed spring/summer 2017 presentation entirely comprised of collabs with Hanes, Champion, Levi’s, Dr Martens, Eastpak and the like.

The Vetements X DHL link-up actually harks back to the spring/summer 2016 show, when Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy wore a baggy yellow tee stamped with the red postal service logo front and centre on the catwalk. At the time, it sparked a media storm, as armchair critics argued against the appropriation of an everyperson company for the gains of a luxury house those seemingly harmless T-shirts retailed for some $300. Though Demna said it was just a joke, it didn’t stop him from binding Balenciaga in similarly sticky style. (A bracelet resembling a roll of Sellotape, retailing for thousands, caused another frenzy earlier this year).

Gigi’s bandage dress is just the latest play in the brothers’ product placement game. Last season, during his return to Paris Fashion Week following a two-year break, Guram presented a huge T-shirt that read “Not Mom’s Favorite” across the chest, among other veiled references to the family drama he was, reportedly, working through. As Luke Leitch said in his George V Magazine the season, “You can unwrap [Hadid’s look] for yourself: the Gvasalia saga rumbles on.”

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Amandine Lhoste

Editor at Vogue France. Based in Paris, France. Quadrilingual: English, French, Spanish, Italian.

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