Welcome to the 32nd insertion of DEMUR®, an analytical series highlighting the intricacies of the artistic world and the minutiae lying within. In this episode we spearhead the modern day counter-culture overlord, Denma Gvasalia, and his mind-bending stance on anti-fashion in the present day.
Counter-culture is a term that can be defined as opposition prevailing against the social norm. When remembering those who pioneered an aptitude of resilience, a stance against raging haute-couture and culture as a whole, names like Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto and Martin Margiela come to mind. Each of these individuals rebelled in spite of extreme societal intolerance and upheld a new precedent leading into current eras. They did so in search of heights higher than just fashion, rather for art as a whole.
In the present day, the premise of subculture, i.e niches like punk rock or grunge are widely dictated as an art lost to corporations, swallowing creativity before it can even begin to blossom. This ideology has created a false narrative that subcultures or counter-culture of any kind has been destroyed, but in hindsight, this is incorrect.
Demna Gvasalia - past creative director of Vetements, and present of Balenciaga, is realizing a distinct parallel to those contrasting mainstream fashion, and is pursuing such through irony. In doing so, an ode to counter-culture in its purest form is established, creating what was once believed as impossible.
Through irony, a shift in perspective is made, allowing the creator to maintain an upper hand on the customer. Over the years, Gvasalia has used irony, for instance the Bernie Sanders Balenciaga campaign logo, to stem conversation and evoke emotion within its consumer base. This outrage caused by an ironic rip-off is seen as a PR stunt, and yet still, sells out. The same premise can be relayed to the “T-Shirt Shirt”, a design so futile those that hate it learn to love it, and create counter-culture within high fashion, which is originally rooted in counter-culture.
The designer is capitalizing on a yearn for individuality, and thus creates garments otherwise labelled as “mainstream”. To the high-fashion consumer basis, these designs are regarded as lazy, distasteful, or flat out bad. However, when looking within, Demna Gvasalia is using these exact techniques to create a thought of affluence and distinguish himself by becoming indifferent. By opposing the mainstream designers of couture, avant-garde, and counter-culture, a new age of protest is created, one of which that uses the core values of fast, or accepted fashion to do so.
By aggravating an audience, hatred is built towards a niche, and therefore a niche is born. In this instance, without hate the design is simply distasteful, but by creating Fortnite x Balenciaga hoodies, or DHL x Vetements collaborations, a shift in focus reroutes the beauty to the principle behind such, not the garment itself. The concept is reaction fueled, perspective based and a counter-culture cesspool, yet when distilled, remains a contrast in normality and a want for anything but.
Anger curates a mob mentality, and by buying into Balenciaga the consumer is now separated from the crowd. The user has achieved abnormality as desired, but the product on surface level is merely an embroidered black hat or embellished ‘Unity Sweater’. His design is sarcastic and bland but saturated in thought, creating a divide between those “in the know” and typical persons. The bridge is within the product and connects a gap, as the mainstream customer is ignorant to the crude and basic ideals, while the enthusiast is lost in contemporary counter-culture, buying basic, low-effort, essentials, hoping for originality.
Irony is the caveat to Demna’s Balenciaga, and is working to propel the label through anti-advertising. The basis of his notion makes people conversate (this article for instance) and grow the brand even further, driving sales, and repeating the cycle. A counter-culture has been garnered in a love of counter-culture itself, without the public realizing. By rebelling against those revolting with the power of normality, Demna Gvasalia resides far from typical, and presents something much deeper than a screen printed hoodie. Demna Gvasalia has successfully created counter-culture in a space thought of as just that, countering such with that of mainstream idealism.
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