Exploring the origins of the industry's absurdist moment.
Author:Marc RichardsonUpdated:Sep 5, 2019Original:Sep 5, 2019Our collective obsession with all things archival was born, ostensibly, from a reverence for fashion's great designers, which is what makes the current state of archive-referential fashion so curious.
Like any moment, there's been momentum building for quite some time; the past decade has slowly seen fashion become increasingly cynical and referential. One of the first to truly thrive in that niche was Wil Fry, an Australian-born, New York-based designer whose humor GQ once likened to Stephen Colbert's. Fry's early designs were tongue-in-cheek — remarkably simple but clever.
Bollin is the owner and creative director of Rough Simmons, a brand that emerged from an online community dedicated to Belgian designer Raf Simons. "Rough was founded in a Discord chat that was Raf-centric," explains Bollin, before adding that it's still "a group effort, between a somewhat large collective over the internet."
These hyper-specific references have also served as a rallying point for those with an established interest in archival Raf. "A lot of the people who are entering into the archive market right now don't have the same perspective as a few years ago," says Bollin. "The people who understand the references that we make are probably serious collectors."
That being said, you'd be hard-pressed to deny that Vêtements consistently succeeds in sparking a conversation. From commenting on the important role that shipping providers play in contemporary luxury fashion to making subtle references to other labels like Chrome Hearts, to having us ask ourselves if we're ready for UGG and Juicy to make comebacks, Vêtements has trolled the industry time and again.
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