THE POST-SOVIET FASHION’S BRAND VISUAL IMAGE STRATEGY
YIU, KA YAM LUCAS BA (Hons) Scheme in Fashion and Textiles (Fashion Retailing Specialism)
INSTITUTE OF TEXTILES & CLOTHING THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY 2017
(Black Page)
THE POST-SOVIET FASHION’S BRAND VISUAL IMAGE STRATEGY
A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Fashion and Textiles (Fashion Retailing Specialism) under the Supervision of Dr Stacy Hyun-Nam Lee by Ka Yam Lucas, YIU Institute of Textiles & Clothing The Hong Kong Polytechnic University March 2017
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude and give thanks to my final year project supervisor, Dr Stacy Hyun-Nam Lee. She had provided significant support and guidance throughout the project. I am really appreciative for her willingness to share her precious time and provided me with beneficial tutorial and perceptive. She also gave me encouragement and freedom given which contribute to the preparation and completion of my final year project.
In addition, I would like to sincerely thank all my respondents for their generosity in time. The study would not have completed without their kind participation. I would like to thank them for having trust in me and being willing to share their experiences.
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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it reproduces no material previously published or written, nor material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma, except where due acknowledgement had been made in the text.
_____________________________________________________________(Signed) ______________________________________________________(Name of student)
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ABSTRACT
The Post-Soviet collective has shown their success in the fashion industry by their unique aesthetic on authenticity in recent years. Balenciaga, Gosha Rubchinskiy and Vetements are regarded as the most representative fashion brands of this phenomenon. Gosha Rubchinskiy, Demna Gvasalia and Lotta Volkova are seen as the key contributors of this collective. They are selected as the case studies in this research. The existing researches are mainly focusing on the Post-Soviet collective's business strategies while the development of their brand image through visual communication is not clearly identified. This study aims to provide an insight for fashion branders or fashion marketers who intend to have a better understanding of the current fashion brands' image strategies. A qualitative analysis supported by in-depth interviews was used to study the relationship between the Post-Soviet fashion’s visual communication, brand image and its impact. This study reveals the impact of the Post-soviet contributors’ growing up background on the design philosophy, formation of their brand image and their influence on the post-modern fashion system. My findings suggest that both their visual images as well as demand control strategy have created an exclusive and authentic brand image in customer’s mindset that encouraged their success.
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CONTENT Page CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1.
Background…………………………………………………………………….
1
1.2.
Objectives………………………………………………………………………
2
1.3.
Scope of Study………………………………………………………………….
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1.
2.2
2.3. 2.4.
Post-Soviet Fashion Brand Study …………………………………………….
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2.1.1.
Cultural Background of Post-Soviet Fashion..……………………...
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2.1.2.
Vetements ………………………….…………………………………
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2.1.3.
Gosha Rubchinskiy…………………………………………………..
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2.1.4.
Balenciaga…………………………………………………………….
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Post-Soviet Fashion Design Features…………………………………………
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Bad Taste……………………………………………………………..
12
Subcultures…………………………………………………………...
14
Bootleg (fake goods)/ Logo…………………………………………..
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Communism ...………………………………………………………..
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Post-Soviet Fashion Business Strategy ………………………………………
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Supply & Demand..…………………………………………………..
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Brand Image…………………………………………………………………...
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CHAPTER 3:
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1.
Introduction……………………………………………………………………
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3.2.
Primary Data…………………………………………………………………..
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3.3.
Purposive Sampling Interview………………………………………………..
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3.4.
Secondary Data………………………………………………………………..
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3.5.
Rhetoric of the Image…………………………………………………………
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3.6.
Data Collection………………………………………………………………...
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3.7.
Data analysis…………………………………………………………………...
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Page CHAPTER 4: INTERPRETATION 4.1.
Emergence of the Post-Soviet Trend…………………………………………….
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Influence on Social Media……………………………………………
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Business Strategy……………………………………………………………....….
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Pricing Strategy………………………………………………………...
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Supply & Demand……………………………………………………...
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Media Strategy……………………………………………………….…
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Brand Image……………………………………………………………....……….
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Promoting the Post- Soviet countries………………………………….
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Subculture…………………………………………………………….....
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Gopnik - Гопник (Russian subculture) ……………………...……….
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Impacts on the fashion industry………………………………….…………....…
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Casting model on Instagram…………………………………….......…
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Co-branding………………………………………………………..…...
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Secret location pop stores……………………………………….……..
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Death of Cat Walk....…………………………………………………...
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Visual Analyze……………………………………………………………..………
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Lotta Volkova’s Images………………………………………………...
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Vetements’ Images ……………………………………………..………
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Gosha Rubchinskiy’s Images………………………………..……....…
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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………..........
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4.2.
4.3.
4.4.
4.5.
REFERENCES APPENDIX
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List of Tables Page Table 1. Interviewees Background Information………………………………….
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Table 2. Questionnaires for interview…………...……………………………….
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List of Figures Page Figure 2-1: Demna Gvasalia (right), Gosha Rubchinskiy (middle) and Lotta Volkova (left).................................................................................................... 5 Figure 2-2: Relationships Chart of the Post-Soviet collective.................................... 6 Figure 2-3: Vetements Fall 2016 Ready-to-Wear....................................................... 8 Figure 2-4: Gosha Rubchinskiy Spring Summer 2017............................................... 9 Figure 2-5: Balenciaga Menswear Fall Winter 2017.................................................. 11 Figure 2-6: Gosha Rubchinskiy Fall Winter 2015...................................................... 12 Figure 2-7: Vetements x Juicy Couture....................................................................... 13 Figure 2-8: Vetements Fall 2018 Ready-to-wear........................................................ 14 Figure 2-9: Gosha Rubchinskiy wearing Vetements’ DHL T-shirt............................ 15 Figure 2-10: Gosha Rubchinskiy x Fila hoody........................................................... 16 Figure 2-11: Balenciaga Fall Winter 2017 collection’s logo & Bernie Sanders’ campaign logo............................................................................................................. 17 Figure 2-12: Gosha Rubchinskiy’s design with Communist symbols........................ 18 Figure 2-13: Vetements decrease supply strategy....................................................... 19 Figure 3-1: Roland Barthes’s Rhetoric of the Image visual analysis method............. 26 Figure 4-1: Gosha Rubchinskiy Post-Soviet style....................................................... 39 Figure 4-2: Thrasher skating magazine T-shirt........................................................... 40 Figure 4-3: Gopnik style.............................................................................................. 43 Figure 4-4: Gosha Rubchinskiy x Burberry (left) Balenciaga x Crocs (right) ........... 45 viii
Figure 4-5: Vetements Hong Kong pop-up................................................................. 47 Figure 4-6: Image 1 - From Lotta Volkova’s Instagram............................................. 50 Figure 4-7: Image 2 - From Lotta Volkova’s Instagram............................................. 51 Figure 4-8: Image 3 - From Lotta Volkova’s Instagram............................................. 52 Figure 4-9: Image 4 - From Lotta Volkova’s Instagram............................................. 53 Figure 4-10: Image 5 - From Vetements’ Instagram................................................... 55 Figure 4-11: Image 6 - Vetements’ window display................................................... 56 Figure 4-12: Image 7- From Gosha Rubchinskiy’s Instagram.................................... 57 Figure 4-13: Image 8 - From Gosha Rubchinskiy’s Instagram................................... 58
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Post-Soviet fashion is the most dominant fashion trend in the recent years, ‘2016 was the year of Post-Soviet fashion’, states Leach (2016). The term ‘Post-Soviet fashion’ is referring to the aesthetic of the dressing in Post-Soviet labels whose aesthetic is inspired by the Slavic poor or collective cultural and political history of the youths during the Cold War (Eror, 2017). Balenciaga, Gosha Rubchinskiy and Vetements are the most representative brands of the trend (Leach, 2016), the reason for these three brands being selected to discuss is explained in Chapter 2.1.1. Either as these brands’ designers or stylists, Gosha Rubchinskiy, Demna Gvasalia and Lotta Volkova, plays as the key contributors of the trend. While these brands have shown their successes in the fashion market, it is very spellbinding to study how they built up the trend and created a huge demand in the market.
Gosha Rubchinskiy from Moscow, Demna Gvasalia from ex-Soviet Georgia and Lotta Volkova from Vladivostok, Russia, share a similar growing up background culture. They grew up at the period of the USSR dissolution. Russia, Georgia and the rest of the Soviet countries were thrown into political, cultural and economic chaos (Leach, 2016). They grew up in regions that had been censored from information for centuries, but suddenly flooded with western pop culture and consumerism (Leach, 2016). They were inspired with 1
east-meets-west culture clash as the muse of their arts, which have been proven to be very successful merely a few years after Vetements, Gosha Rubchinskiy launched while Demna Gvasalia took over Balenciaga. Business Of Fashion (BOF, 2017) notes the Demna Gvasalia-designed brand, Balenciaga has replaced Gucci, for its first place in the ranking of the hottest brand in fashion in the third quarter of 2017. Also, Vetements continue ranked as top 4 in the third quarter of 2017 by their distribution strategy, it keeps the demand of their products high and grows their influence of high street fashion.
The brand image has been suggested as an important element in contributing to the Post-Soviet fashion trend. The Post-Soviet designers have brought revolution to fashion industry and set a new definition of coolness in fashion through their brand images (Chong, 2017). In addition, the business strategy on supply & demand has created a different sense of luxury and scarcity for the brand (Ahmed, 2016).
1.2 Objectives The research objectives are stated as follows:
i.
Explore the Post-Soviet Fashion Trend;
ii.
Understand how contributor’s design philosophy and their background influence on brand strategies and brand images;
iii.
Analyze how the Post-Soviet fashion brand play on brands’ visual communication
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1.3 Scope of Study In this study, the influence and background of Post-Soviet fashion trend will be discussed. As well as the brand strategy and how the Post-Soviet fashion brands created success brand images by their visual communication strategy. To achieve the study objectives, fashion articles through various media, and fashion magazine journals were used for case study. As the Post- Soviet fashion trend is booming in recent years, these sources can help to understand up-to-date trends and business strategies for this study. Academic journals are important for the study in visual communication and consumer behaviors.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Post-Soviet Fashion Brand Study 2.1.1 Cultural Background of Post-Soviet Fashion In most studies, Gosha Rubchinskiy, Demna Gvasalia and Lotta Volkova are regarded as one unit in contributing to the Post-Soviet fashion movement because of their close relations in works or in daily life as seen in social media (Woloszyk, 2017). For instance, Lotta Volkova is the stylist for all three brands and contributed in the brand visuals and images, or Rubchinskiy once was a model for Vetements’ runway, wearing the DHL T-shirt. It is based on their similar perspectives on the Post- Soviet aesthetic, although Gvasalia and Volkova have their education and started at the West and Gosha is the only one who still operating in Russia (Woloszyk, 2017). The time when they grew up in Post-Soviet, the economic was in chaos and social stability was low, the east-meets-west culture clash was serious. “As the Post-Soviet states or countries have never experienced Western culture before, Young Russians, Georgians, Ukrainians and their peers in the rest of the bloc experienced McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Vogue and MTV for the first time,” states Leach (2016). The Post-Soviet countries are facing problems like rising crime, poverty, and alcoholics.
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Figure 2-1: Demna Gvasalia (right), Gosha Rubchinskiy (middle) and Lotta Volkova (left)
Olga Sushko, the new editor-in-chief of Vogue Ukraine, writes “In the 90s, street-style mavens were making their first attempts at creating ‘anti-Soviet’ fashion, borrowing ideas from western designers and wearing clothes they made themselves using European models as inspiration,” (Romanenko, 2016). At that moment, the Western culture was being embraced and regarded as cool, this is the reason why Gosha, Demna and Lotta want to promote their background, Eastern bloc countries. The Post-Soviet brands celebrate what is normally considered as low class, poor taste like faux fur, consumerist logos and mass-market ’90s sportswear (Leach, 2016). The designers are trying to give a genuine reflection on how the youngsters dressed up in the 90s in areas like Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev (Leach, 2016).
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Figure 2-2: Relationships Chart of the Post-Soviet collective
2.1.2 Vetements Vetements has been the most controversial fashion brand in recent years and described as the “fashion revolution” with simultaneous criticism and raise (Chong, 2017). Vetements is launched by the Gvasalia brothers – Demna and Guram Gvasalia and they published the brand’s first, Fall/Winter 2014 collection (Phelps, 2016). Demna and seven other anonymous designers from different parts of the world who each bring their individual styles create the design of Vetements and backgrounds to Vetements to form an internationally relatable design style (Madsen, 2016). The designers keep themselves anonymous and usually answer interview question as a unit to switch the attention on them to the clothes exclusively (Feiereisen, 2016). ‘In just three years, the brand has emerged as one of the most disruptive in
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the industry, abandoning the show schedule, combining its men’s and women’s collections and building a business model based on the sale of limited numbers of very expensive clothes.’ (Ellison, 2017). Vetements have managed to gain more than $100 million revenue and gained 1.3 millions of Instagram followers within three years (Socha, 2017). In Vetements’ third season, the sell-through rate has reached 70-80%, which is very high comparing to the industry standard (Chong, 2017). In 2016, Vetements opened its first store in the Dover Street Market New York, a multi-brand fashion retailer owned by Rei Kawakubo and Adrian Joffe, the founders of Comme des Garçons (Silver, 2016). In order to enhance the retailing efficiency, Vetements have decided to change the fashion show calendar from March and October to January and July and combine the menswear and women’s wear lines (Chong, 2017).
Moreover, Vetements moved its merchandise period earlier to one month after the showcase to fit into the “see-now-buy-now” trend that has been adopted from Burberry’s strategy (Marshall, 2016). ‘Positioning itself in an “ambiguity state”, Vetements found a distinctive point in between niche and mainstream, insider and outsider, street wear and luxury fashion, as well as the socio-political stance.’ states Chong (2017). Vetements’ stylist, Lotta Volkova, has taken a big role on the brand’s visual communication to build up an ordinariness of Soviet heritage brand image (Woloszyk, 2017). To build up this brand image, Volkova often casts fashion models that portray an ordinary Russian youth image (Woloszyk, 2017).
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Figure 2-3: Vetements Fall 2016 Ready-to-Wear
2.1.3 Gosha Rubchinskiy ‘Of all the fashion designers to have emerged in Russia in recent years, few are more remarkable than Gosha Rubchinskiy’ states Graham (2017). Gosha Rubchinskiy, who was born in Moscow, found his eponymous fashion brand ГОША РУБЧИНСКИЙ in 2008 (Woloszyk, 2017). He also marked himself as fashion photographer beside designer of his brand. In 2012, the brand was signed up by Adrian Joffe at Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market, and was giving support on different management issues, such as production (Stansfield, 2016). The brand took inspiration from and documenting the youth culture in 8
Russia, “I wanted it to be like a performance. It was not about the collection, but about these boys, this generation, this energy” suggested by Rubchinsiky (Kansara & Fedorova, 2016). Gosha Rubchinskiy’s works empower the Russian youth and foster its die-hard fans and form a community with like-minded, creative individual (Stansfield, 2016). The price of Gosha Rubchinskiy’s products is much more affordable when comparing to Vetements’, is not expensive enough to be defined as luxury, yet he still uses the high-end French luxury fashion system to run his business, like showcasing his collection on ready-to-wear runways (Stansfield, 2016). The brand has crossovers with Adidas and Burberry to showcase a more subculture-oriented design like chav, gopnik, underground rave culture (Allwood, 2017).
Figure 2-4: Gosha Rubchinskiy Spring Summer 2017
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2.1.4 Balenciaga After Alexander Wang quitted Balenciaga, Demna Gvasalia took over his art director position in October 2015. The new Balenciaga then became one of the most coveted and relevant names in the industry,’ states Vestiaire Collective (2017). “Francçois-Henri Pinault, the CEO of Kering (parent company) praised Demna as a powerful emerging force in today’s creative world.” (Woloszyk, 2017). With the help of Lotta Volkova styling, Balenciaga has successfully brought up a Bad Taste trend to the fashion industry (Menkes, 2017). Balenciaga used deliberately awkward proportions and downmarket fabrics to create a look that feels aggressively unglamorous.’ (Bain, 2017). This Bad Taste style has also raised up debates, such as the Balenciaga Triple S Sneakers published at September 2017, people were suggesting the Triple S shoes are like dad’s old New Balance hiking sneakers yet they are being sold with a $795 retail price (Park, 2017). The other case is at Balenciaga’s Spring/ Summer 2018 collection, the brand crossover with Crocs, designed a pair of cartoonish 10cm platform Crocs plastic sandals. As the Crocs sandals have been recognized as practical, comfy, functional, but never fashionable or good looking, Balenciaga’s crossover with Crocs has raised many people concern on this bad taste aesthetic and fashion sense (Croft, 2017).
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Figure 2-5: Balenciaga Menswear Fall Winter 2017
2.2 Post-Soviet Fashion Design Features “The main idea is the beauty of Post-Soviet and its new generation” states Gosha (BOF, 2017). Since the brands are basically trying to showcase a real image of how the youngsters dressed up in the 90s, they included the following design features in most of their collections. It is regarded as the trickled-down effect, “a hierarchical process that the higher social status class trying to imitated the lower-status individuals cheaper styles” states McCracken (1985). Vetements’ signature items like the DHL t-shirt and the security-printed raincoats have also reflected sense of irony and humor on Western’s modern consumerism culture (Chong, 2017), this design style is closely related to Post-Soviet growing up background.
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Figure 2-6: Gosha Rubchinskiy Fall Winter 2015 Bad Taste From majority of the fashion reports, we can find out that people regard this trend is being considered as Bad Taste or trashy fashion, because of the mimicking ill-fitting garments (Yaskey, 2017). Their aesthetic is apart from the existing modern fashion aesthetic. They are abandoning the hierarchical glamorous idea, its no longer about looking attractive and feeling luxury. Instead they focus on adopting immense normality. For instance the gym wears like tracksuit and sneakers are being features on their shows often (Anastasiia, 2017). The extreme high above ankle sport shorts and overly long cut sport branded shirts are the proportion style (Yaskey, 2017). Or like Vetements crossover with Juicy Couture, to produce the velvet body tracksuits, while this type of velvet tracksuits are being considered as an outdated, 2000’s item and of course Crocs sandals (Allwood, 2016). 12
Figure 2-7: Vetements x Juicy Couture
Or the flame print, tribal patterns that represent trashy juvenile coolness are being adopted in this trend again. It becomes like a sick joke, not only to be bad taste and looks ugly but it is also an orchestrated imitation. You cannot just look bad and be sloppy. There are certain features that accepted to be bad taste, like the Balenciaga enormous bag. A big bag that looks like the Ikea bag you used to carry dirty clothes for laundry.
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Figure 2-8: Vetements Fall 2018 Ready-to-wear
Subculture Subcultures were regarded to be a synonym of alternative, underground club culture (Thornton, 1995). Vetements is hugely rooted in subculture, the subcultures elements in its design is obvious (Anaya, 2016). Soviet fashion in the 80’s was categorized as artistic subcultures like punk and new wave or street subculture that is music oriented (Amato, 2017), these types of subcultures elements are the most significant features of Vetements. Gosha is
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promoting the subcultures like raves, skaters in Russia, and often as been seen as promoting Russian “gopniks”, which usually wearing Adidas sport track suits and tuck in their track pants hems in to the white socks and wearing sport sneakers (Eror, 2017).
Bootleg (fake goods)/ Logo Another significant style that was brought up by the Post- Soviet trend is Bootleg or Logo. Vetements had thrown a "garage sale" at Seoul that called "Official Fake" collection. And Vetements most signature item, by bootlegging the DHL logo, the DHL T-shirt was quickly sold out and became the must have item for fashion bloggers (Platt, 2016).
Figure 2-9: Gosha Rubchinskiy wearing Vetements’ DHL T-shirt 15
The big logo designs can be seen in Gosha’s collaboration with Adidas, Vetements collaboration with 17 fashion brands like Juicy Couture and Champion (Chong, 2017). No matter the logo of Champion or DHL, reworking with fashion brand logos had become a trademark for Vetements. It all has to trace back to their background, growing up by the capitalist boom in the 90s at Post-Soviet counties. The Post-Soviet territory was flooded by these fake logo, bootleg knockoffs of sports wear brands. Gosha also played with the sports wear brand Fila, to mixing their logo with Cyrillic fonts feature (Anastasiia, 2017).
Figure 2-10: Gosha Rubchinskiy x Fila hoody
Balenciaga has further promoted this ‘New Luxury’ by its designs like the carry shopper bag that is strikingly similar to the Ikea Shopping bag (Fedorova, 2017). In addition, Balenciaga used logo to express their political stands. In Balenciaga’s Fall Winter 2017 collection, a few items features a logo, which instantly reminds people the 2016 USA President Election campaign by Bernie Sanders’ party (Jamie, 2017).
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“One of the things we wanted to create
was a logotype that gave a corporate vision very vividly. In my research, Bernie Sanders's was most present at that time.” Demna Gvasalia explains (Allyssa, 2017).
Figure 2-11: Balenciaga Fall Winter 2017 collection’s logo & Bernie Sanders’ campaign logo
Communism In 2016 November, Vetements released a red hoodie adorned with a hammer and sickle and in Gosha’s “1984” S/S 16 collection, the design was featured with hammer and sickle logos along with Soviet fonts, Russian red and the communism slogan (Fedorova, 2017). These communism signals are seen as a response of the intense excesses of capitalism and the rise of inequality in Russia under Putin (Ferrier, 2016). In a lot of post soviet countries, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine, the hammer and sickle and other Communist symbols such as the red star are considered a criminal offence (Fedorova, 2017), the
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designers are using these symbols as a rebellious protest to the overloaded capitalism. "In the 90s we all think the communism is bad, but we have forgotten the good side about it. Communism was once beautiful. Now we should try see it from a new perspective" states Gosha (Anders, 2017). Gosha often shows communist iconography, ex-communism countries’ flags pattern and Cyrillic style fonts in his design, to indicate his love on some good ideologies on Communism (Ferrier, 2016).
Figure 2-12: Gosha Rubchinskiy’s design with Communist symbols
2.3 Post-Soviet Fashion Business Strategy Supply & Demand During the talk of Guram Gvasalia with Sarah Mower at The Royal Institution, Guram has stated that his strategy is like the most basic model that everyone learnt in the business school,
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supply meets demand. There are a curve representing the number of supply and a curve representing the number of demand. Normally the point of where two curves meet is how much we should produce so that the supply can meet the demand. However in Guram’s strategy, he decided to simply lower the supply curve a bit. It is because he wants to make sure the products can all be sold out instead of overproduced. To keep the supply curve a bit lower can ensure they wont have extra products left in stock. He said, “It is always better to sell one piece less to a store and to be sold out than to sell one piece extra and to go on sale. Because once you go on sale, there’s no going back” (Woloszyk, 2017).
Figure 2-13: Vetements decrease supply strategy In Guram’s perspective, what make something become a luxury good are its quality and also its scarcity (Ahmed, 2016). For instance, he made a bold statement that he does not consider Louis Vuitton nowadays as a luxury brand because customers are able to go to their stores
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and find what they want, there are always stocks available to the customers (Ahmed, 2016). Demna also thinks that nowadays the fashion market is too oversupplied, too many clothes are being produced, the seasons of clothes are becoming complex and a crazy rhythm was created (Woo, 2016). Guram believes that too many clothes are not only bad for the environment, but also to the consumer’s soul and desire, therefore Vetements only deliberately limits distribution to retailers (Woloszyk, 2017).
In addition, Vetements challenged the traditional R2W calendar. They rescheduled the date of show from March and October to January and July (Chong, 2017). In this strategy they are skipping the pre-collections, giving their products more time on the retail shelves, from two months on the shelves extended to six, suggested by Guram (Woloszyk, 2017).“You don’t need an extra shirt – it’s your ego that needs an extra shirt,” explains Guram (Woloszyk, 2017). A sense of luxury is associated with premium pricing on products and the exclusivity (Giovannini &Xu, 2015). Therefore, the Gvasalia brothers create scarcity for the brand and stay ahead of the demand through limiting the amounts of products that are popular and allow their brand not to have sale (Ahmed, 2016). In the interview Guram also mentioned that the products of Vetements are expensive is because on the one hand, the products are produced within great factories and nicer, thicker and more fabrics are being used for the oversize cutting. On the other hand, they think that is better if people save up and buy one piece that they will chrish for a long time, instead of buying clothes every week and throw them away quickly, replacing fast fashion by slow fashion (Woloszyk, 2017).
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2.4. Brand Image Brand Image is defined as ‘the present perspective or view from the customers toward a brand. Brand image is also regarded as a specific bundle of connotations within the minds in the targeted customers’ (Management study guide, 2016, 162). Consequently, brand image can represent which position the brand is standing in present. It also signifies as a certain beliefs that held by the brand (Management Study Guide, 2016). According to Chong (2017), the brand image was one of the most significant factors for the Post-Soviet trend. For most individuals, when they want to construct a self-image for their own. For individuals who want to construct their own image, they usually associate their image to the clothes brand images (Giovannini & Xu, 2015). Gvasalia suggested that Vetements is more based on the ease and nonchalance, a sense of coolness (Anaya, 2016). Post-Soviet designers have created a new definition of coolness in fashion, the idea of anti-aesthetics (Chong, 2017). For example, Vetements associates itself with the brands that are no longer being considered as fashionable, like Juicy Couture or Champion, with Lotta’s unique styling skill. Creating the Bad Taste aesthetic, the new cool is uncool, embracing the ugliness (Allwood, 2016). According to Chong, ‘the revival of the passé is beneficial to the fashion system. It has contributed to the functioning of the fashion system, instead of fashion being dominated by popular or luxury brands.’ (2017). According to Lotta Volkova in an interview on BOF, they are actually just trying to make clothes for their friends, and this aiming makes their works become very personal. They think about if their friends will wear it when they produce each piece. It is about having fun and making clothes for their friends (Khayyer, 2016). This is the image of
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the Post-Soviet trend, it is exclusive to their friends, people wanted to buy their products and dress up as them in order to be a part of them, a part of the cool trend (Chong, 2017).
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CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1. Introduction The method is twofold, with both business strategy and visual culture. For the first aspect, the core focus is literature research in theories on business strategies. Then the second aspect is to study the brand image through visual analysis method. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the present findings aim at analyzing the relation between the Post-Soviet fashion brands’ image and the customers purchasing motivation. There is still a lack of study in the visual communication strategy used for the Post-Soviet brands to build up a certain image.
To support the study, quantitative method is not the most suitable one, as quantitative methods like investigating the financial year reports of the Post – Soviet fashion brands, can only give a vague indication of how the financial data relates to their business strategy. The visual strategy of the brands and the effect of it are not directly showcased through the figures of sales. According to Bansal, ‘Qualitative research is based on textual data, drawn from researchers' observations, interviews, analyses of archival manuscripts, and other similar sources.’ (2012). Qualitative data can often indicate rich accounts of the circumstances (Weick, 2007). By adopting a qualitative research method, a deeper understanding on research in consumers’ psychological response to a brand’s visual communication strategy (Chong, 2017). Therefore, qualitative research will be used in analyzing the brand image of 23
the Post-Soviet brands.
3.2 Primary Data As there is gap between secondary data and its analysis, Chong (2017) suggested there is a need for the primary data research. Primary data can contribute in giving more updated and personal information for the analysis. In-Depth Interviews is one of the good examples in primary data research. In-depth interview is a useful and effective qualitative technique in recording people personal opinions as well as feeling. It can also elicit a vivid idea from the interviewees’ perspective (Milena, Dainora & Stancu, 2008). Therefore, it helps to explore current phenomenon of Post-Soviet by interviewing fashion insiders and understand how the brand’s visual image boosted and carried out the Post-Soviet trend. The interviews will be conducted in a causal and flexible manner, in the need to encourage participants to be more confident and in a rather relaxed way to express their deepest and accurate thoughts on the Post-Soviet trend (Milena, Dainora & Stancu, 2008).
3.3 Purposive Sampling Interview To set up a convincing sampling interview, purposive sampling can be used, the interviewees should be carefully selected based on their possessed qualities (Etikan, Musa, & Alkassim, 2016). The selection of participants is not limited by the amount nor based in theory, instead based on the information required (Etikan, Musa, & Alkassim, 2016). Unlike convenience sampling, purposive sampling is usually used in qualitative study instead of quantitative studies. Suggested by Suen, Huang & Lee (2014), researchers shall select the subjects 24
carefully based on study purpose, and expect unique and rich information from each participant as the value of the study. More importantly, the interviewees should share similar lifestyles or behaviors in culture and working experiences, like participants who works in fashion industry or have a high engagement with the Post- Soviet Brands. The result of the purposive sampling interview can be seen as the customers’ perspective.
Then followed by the expert sampling that the interviewees are experts in the fashion field likes fashion magazine editors, stylist or fashion merchandiser. It helps undetermined whether further research should be created to new area of study (Chong, 2017). This type of research can be seen as the business perspective. The aim of constructing these purposive sampling interviews is to gain comprehensive holistic views on the perceived brand image from the visuals communication of the brands.
3.4 Secondary Data Secondary data analysis is using existing data to study new research area in a timely manner and allows access to large data sets and longitudinal data. (Dunn, Arslanian-Engoren, DeKoekkoek, Jadack,Scott, 2015). It can give generalization of information that enhances the reliability of my research. Online fashion magazine interview articles, fashion journals are extremely important in my research, as they provide updated information for this trend study, such as Business of Fashion.com and Vogue.com. Academic journals and books are also significantly important in understanding the visual communication process as well as culture study. 25
3.5 Rhetoric of the Image According to Barthes, the idea of ‘Rhetoric of the Image’ is to examine and interpret the underlying messages or concept of the images carrying (1977). The underlying messages take part in creating an ideological view by the world. In other words, the concept is to understand how an image ideologically transmits a certain message to the society. For instance, a commercial sent the message to potential customers in a glance, the visual should be highly charged with information or attractiveness in order to convince us (Barthes, 1977). In this method, a threefold analytical technique is used, to analyze the denotation image, the connotation message and the linguistic message (Woloszyk, 2017).
Elements of an Image
Linguistic Message: -captions -labels -explainations -Dialogue
Denotation: Literal level Perceptual identification
Connotation: Symbolic level Conceptual interpretation
Figure 3-1: Roland Barthes’s Rhetoric of the Image visual analysis method Anchoring is another focus in the study, which can be apocryphal, the advertisement aiming to portray their brand as flattering (Barthes, 1977). Barthes method is highly subjective, as different person can get completely different messages from the visual images. Therefore, through interview different stakeholders like potential customers, fashion editors or buyers can provide a bigger sample and shown a more comprehensive perception of the Post- Soviet 26
brands’ image. The interviewees will be ask about their perception of certain images from the Post- Soviet Brands such as their social media post or campaign photos and their strategy campaigns, as well as the key leaders’ style and image of the Post-Soviet fashion trend.
3.6 Data Collection Through using purposive sampling, participates of the interview will be carefully selected. 6 participants are included; all are currently working in the fashion industry and are highly involved in the fashion scene. (See Table 1 for the details). Each interview will last around 30-40 minutes and all participates will sign approval documents for using the information they provided in the interview. The interviews are one on one, in a friendly non-formal manner in order to record the actual opinions. Most of them are conducted in cafes or their working office and studio. Interviews are conducted in interviewees’ mother language.
The interview divide in Four Sections, the First one is collecting their background information such as their age, occupation and introducing the purpose of the interview and this research study. The Second Section will be testing their understanding in the Post-Soviet Fashion Trend and provide them basic information about the trend. The Third Section is asking them about their feelings, thoughts and comments on the Post-Soviet Fashion Trend’s brand image, business strategy, philosophy and success. In the Last section, some visual images of the Post-Soviet fashion campaigns or from their social media like Instagram will be shown to the participants. Then they are required to explain their feelings towards those visual images by using the Rhetoric of the Image method. The denotation image, the 27
connotation message and the linguistic message that they get from the images will be recorded step by step. The above sections are only giving a semi structure for the interview, interviewees are welcomed to express their opinions in a free flow manner.
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Table 1. Interviewees Background Information Participant
Age
Clio Cheung 23
Gender F
Education Fashion Design
Present Occupation Fashion editor at Style-Tips.com
Harry Shan
21
M
Fashion Design
Fashion Student; Freelance Stylist
Kieran Ho
27
M
Fashion Design
Fashion stylist at Hashtag Legend magazine
Maggie Chan 27
F
PR & Marketing
PR manager at Rue Madame
Sarah Lam
F
Fashion Design
Fashion editor at Ming’s
23
magazine Vincent Choi 29
M
Journalism
Fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar HK magazine
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Table 2. Questionnaires for interview Stage 1 Questions
Focus Points
1. Background of Participants
i.
1.1 Age
Try to understand the background of participants
1.2 Occupation
ii.
1.3 Education Background
Ensure participants are insider of the fashion industry
1.4 Gender
iii.
1.5 How is he/she is being involved
Explain this Research and the aim of interviews
in fashion 1.6 Past Occupation 2. Lifestyle 2.1Favourite Fashion Brands 2.2Use in Social Media Stage 2 Questions
Focus Points
3. Understanding in Post-Soviet
i.
Fashion Trend 3.1 Brands
trend ii.
3.2 Designers 3.3 Design Features
Depth of understanding toward the What do they like/ don’t like about the brands
iii.
3.4 Influencers 3.5 Marketing Strategies 3.6 Social Media 3.7 Consumers 4. Attitude towards Post-Soviet Fashion Trend 4.1 Degree of preference 4.2 Brands Visual Image 4.3 Brands Positioning 4.4 Design philosophy 30
Explain the concept of the trend
Stage 3 Questions
Focus Points
5. Comments on Post-Soviet Trend
i.
To understand how did the trend
5.1 Impact for fashion industry
changed the fashion industry in
5.2 Rise up of sub culture
recent years
5.3 Changing fashion business cycle ii.
Through which aspects the brands
5.4 Insider influence
performed well to gain success
5.5 Bad Taste fashion
iii.
6. Reason of success
How they see the trend going to evolve
6.1 Business strategies 6.2 Image building 6.3 Use of sub culture 7. Future prediction Stage 4 Questions
Focus Points
8. Analysis the visual images of the
i.
trend
Analysis how the brands build image thought visual images
8.1 Denotation image 8.2 Connotation message 8.3 Linguistic message
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3.7 Data analysis To analysis the data from in-depth interview, the Observations method is used. It is suitable because it provides ways to understand or examine the nonverbal expression on feelings of the interviewees. It depends on how the participants communicate to each other (SCHMUCK, 1997). Also it allows me to have deeper understanding to various terms’ definition that the interviewees used in the interview. Observation serves as a grounded element of ethnographic research (Chong, 2017). Observation allows researcher to have a better comprehensive understandings on participant’s point of view through the simultaneous reactions in the face-to-face interview
(Erickson, 1982). It reflects what the participants’ data is important
in certain topic based on their manners, social interaction or views in politics (Kawulich, 2005).
The development of the Post-Soviet Trend, as well as the Post-Soviet Brands strategies in brand image and visual communication information is collected through the Primary and Secondary Research. In this section both data from sampling interview and literature review will be used to interpret the research topic. To make it clear and structured, 4 discussion points are categorized: (i) Emergence of the Post-Soviet Trend; (ii) The business strategy; (iii) The brands image; (iv) Impacts on the fashion industry and another section is analyze the visual images of the Post-Soviet trend by using the method of “Rhetoric of the Image”.
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CHAPTER 4
INTERPRETATION
4.1. Emergence of the Post-Soviet Trend According to recent research, the Post-Soviet Trend is the most significant rising trend. Gosha Rubchinskiy became one of the top three coveted high-street wear brand names, together with Supreme and Palace; After Demna Gvasalia took over Balenciaga for only a few seasons, he transformed Balenciaga in to a high-fashion house and he made Vetements became the most discussed brand; Lotta Volkova is rather behind the scene but still regarded as one of the most influential stylists in the recent years (Leach, 2016).
“As a fashion lover, I would say Vetements is probably the most discussed brand in 2017. A few years ago I had never heard of it, but then it became one of the topics that me and my friends always talk about when it comes to fashion. Before we didn’t even know what is the right pronunciation of the brand name.” (Sarah Lam)
“I didn’t know the exact term for this trend is Post-Soviet, I would have thought it is Russia because of Gosha Rubchinskiy’s style, but yes, I agree that this trend has been dominating the fashion industry in the past years. It is pretty obvious by the style features like big, long sleeves or the gothic fonts and skinhead.” (Kieran Ho)
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Influence on Social Media In 2016 March, shortly after Vetements initiated its Instagram account (vetements_official), it counted 5K followers, and by 2018 February the number has already grown to 2.6M followers (Socha, 2017). This reflects Vetements’ rapidly growing influence on social media.
“Brands like Vetements are really good at promoting themselves through social media. It is a cheap but powerful platform for them to promote the brand. Me and my friends, especially those who like fashion, are all following Vetements on Instagram. The present phenomenon shows that it is cool to be familiar with the brand. Following them on Instagram is a bit like a fashion statement to say you are on trend. It also shows a person is up to date enough to know the new trendy hype brands in fashion.” (Clio Cheung)
“I also didn’t think about why this brand suddenly popped up and I didn’t have the intention to find out why, because what is more important for a normal customer is to know which brands are trendy or ‘cool’ in the next season. How a brand raised is not necessarily a big concern for a normal customer. We only know that ‘Oh, this hoodie is on trend now, I need to get one as well, take a selfie and put it on social media.” (Kieran Ho)
Guram Gvasalia pointed out that in this age, people in general think less on the long-term aspect in sustainability because of the Internet and technology, especially young people. People can update themselves through screens every second, which also affects the brands to focus less on planning the long-term structure (Socha, 2017). Data from interviews shows 34
that a lot of people follow the Post-Soviet trend based on its influence on social media. Most customers have no deep understanding in the brand’s fundamental values or design philosophy – these are out of their concern.
4.2. Business Strategy Pricing Strategy The products of the Post-Soviet brands all have a relatively high pricing, especially Vetements. Vintage Levi’s re-edited jeans by Vetements are around 800£, a printed hoody 500£. On average this is a very high pricing in terms of a high-street, non-couture-oriented fashion brand (Sowray, 2016). For Gosha Rubchinskiy, its pricing is regarded as rather normal compared to other similar-positioning street wear brands like Carhartt or PALACE. Gosha Rubchinskiy stated that his business model is opposing to Demna’s, therefore the pricing strategy is different as well. He thinks that he himself and Demna Gvasalia are different individuals and this is all about a story of individuals as well, so there is no need for them to be the same just because they support each other (Porter, 2016). His T-shirts are around 45£ and track pants cost 95£, which is still affordable for his army of adolescent devotees (Porter, 2016).
“It is insane. The price of Vetements’ product is ridiculously high and unaffordable, even though I like its design but the price is just unbearable. I am not going to spend HK$5000 for a hoody or HKD$800 for a pair of socks. I would rather buy other traditional luxury brands with this price, a Gucci feels more price-worthy than it.” (Kieran Ho) 35
“I guess it’s one of their strategies to keep their products in such a high price. It creates an image of exclusivity and it’s not something that people can get easily. I seldomly saw them doing a sale as well.” (Maggie Chan)
Vetements is trying to question and deconstruct the established postmodern luxury fashion system by a high pricing strategy (Woloszyk, 2017). The postmodern luxury fashion system tends to encourage customers to keep buying new products. That is why there are more mini collections or capsule collections between the spring/summer and fall/winter collections. In addition the rise of fast fashion creates more and more low-priced products. These products cultivate the consumer behavior, the consumers care less about a product’s lifecycle. Guram Gvasalia mentioned Vetements has such a high pricing level in order to maintain its products’ quality and also to promote sustainability (Ahmed, 2016). This is not only about creating exclusivity: when the price is higher people tend to save up and consider well before purchasing. The whole idea is to limit the production, to buy less but wise, cherish the items for longer, extend the product lifecycle (Ahmed, 2016).
Supply and Demand Supply and demand is the main strategy Vetements used in their business as well as Gosha Rubchinskiy. A limited number of products are produced in order to keep a high demand in people’s desire (Ahmed, 2016). Vetements is abstaining in pre-fall or resorts collections, this gives the spring summer and fall winter products more time to stay on the retail shelves 36
(Woloszyk, 2017). It can be regarded as a method to reduce supply, from producing collections twice instead of four times a year. Luxury is scarcity, stated by Guram Gvasalia, if they re-produce the sold-out products immediately, it is a disrespectful act to the people who bought the products at first (Ahmed, 2016). This is the reason why the products from Vetements always have an image of exclusivity; because it’s not only expensive but also limited, people cannot buy it even though they could afford the price.
“When you go to some e-commerce online store that sells Vetements or Gosha Rubchinskiy products, they are often sold out. One time I wanted to buy a Gosha Rubchinskiy T-shirt through the online shop Opening Ceremony. It was a pre-order and two days after it started it was already sold out. I could not buy it, even though it was at the stage of pre-ordering.” (Clio Cheung)
Media strategy The Post-Soviet fashion brands recognize the influence in digital social media is getting higher and higher. They therefore make good use of social media and it is a major factor that contributes to the rise of the trend (Chong, 2017). Also, more and more shoppers are tending to purchase through online e-commerce stores – especially the younger shopper due to the convenience and the diverse selection of e-commerce online stores (Giovannini & Xu, 2015). The social media management of a fashion brand can significantly affect its performance on online e-commerce stores cause they are tightly linked together in the digital word. As a result, online media became extremely important in fashion business. A high involvement in
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social media can increase the positive image and encourage the purchasing intention of customers (Mikalef, Giannakos & Pateli, 2013).
“These brands are so smart when it comes to social media strategies, they know how to create a sense of coolness on Instagram. It helps to promote and mark up their products. They successfully built their Instagram account to an image of coolness, people want to be cool and follow it. Especially for the generation Y, we grew up in an environment that is surrounded by social media.” (Clio Cheung)
“Gosha Rubchinskiy’s Instagram account is very interesting as last year he suddenly deleted all the posted photos on his Instagram account. Now there are only 6 photos on his Instagram account, he posts new photos and deletes the older one to keep his Instagram account to always only have 6 photos on it. This is quite unique for a fashion brand, there are no brands that monitor their social media account like this. It draws people’s attention and feels like there is a time limitation for each photo.” (Kieran Ho)
4.3. Brand Image Promoting the Post-Soviet countries One of the most significant brand features of them is promoting their countries’ Post-Soviet background. As mentioned in chapter 2 their growing up environment has hugely inspired their design. There is still a dominant occupation of the West-white privileged in fashion and these brands are trying to promote the Post-Soviet aesthetic so the youth growing up in Post-Soviet regions can admit their self-identity and get rid of themselves from that 38
West-white privileged fashion system (Fedorova, 2017). Gosha Rubchinskiy styles himself with a Post-Soviet Russian image: slim fit with a skinhead, wears oversize sweaters and lose jeans, using a shoelace as belt, looks like a skateboarder. He often hangs around in the Moscow after the decade of Soviet Union collapse (Ferrier, 2016). Because of the rise of the Post-Soviet trend, more emerging Post-Soviet aesthetic young brands are getting more attention from the fashion industry, like Anton Belinsky promoting the rave party scene in Kiev, Ukraine and Austrian-based brand Hvala Ilija reinventing the Balkan style (Highsnobiety, 2017).
Figure 4-1: Gosha Rubchinskiy Post-Soviet style
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“Before the rise of Vetements and Gosha Rubchinskiy, I didn’t really know much about the Post-Soviet Aesthetic, but now this kind of aesthetic is dominating the industry. A lot of other luxury brands are following the trend and starting to use the trickle up design philosophy, adding sportswear elements like tracksuits and oversize long sleeve blazers and gothic fonts to their designs. This is happening everywhere from luxury brands to fast fashion retailers like H&M and Zara.” (Clio Cheung)
“Nowadays the fashion image of Russia becomes so cool because of the trend. You can see brands putting Russian slogans on their T-shirts. A lot of young people try to dress up as skater boys because of the ‘Gosha Image’. That is why the Thrasher skateboarding magazine T-shirt suddenly became so popular. They build this exclusive image for the Post-Soviet ‘Cool Kids’.” (Harry Shan)
Figure 4-2: Thrasher skateboarding magazine T-shirt
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The brand strategy is aimed to embrace the Soviet aesthetic and to sell a brand heritage of the Eastern Europe more than the Western Europe. Through this concept they can have more control of where to locate and sell the, without the interference of outsiders (Woloszyk, 2017). Unlike the Postmodern fashion system, the Post-Soviet collective is more likely to form an exclusive business crew with their own friends because of their cultural proximity.
Subculture Subculture is highly related to the image of the Post-Soviet trend. According to my research findings subculture is a group of people who share a similar behavior, similar hobbies, and a similar lifestyle. They are somewhat deviant from the mainstream, a minority that is not accepted by the main society. When a subculture is being embraced by the mainstream or becoming more commercial, the niche meaning of subculture will fade (Chong, 2017). According to Lotta Volkova her fashion mission is to discover and make other people discover, that’s why the trend is closely related to subculture at first, because the process of discovering things apart from the mainstream is interesting. However nowadays there are hardly new subcultures to be discovered; in addition the new generation tends to deal with subcultures only superficially. What a lot of people want is just the image, for instance they want a punk style t-shirt but not necessarily listen to punk (Khayyer, 2016). That is the reason there were different subculture styles at the Vetements Autumn/Winter 2017 show: punk, emo, gabber and metalhead (Allwood, 2017). The use of subculture elements is the revival of nostalgic elements to give young people a refreshing vibe and something older generation can relate to and reminisce (Chong, 2017). 41
“I don’t have an in-depth knowledge of different subcultures, but I do think subculture is a great reference for fashion designers. Subcultural elements can give the impression of unique rebellion which is suitable for the trend as they regard themselves as the ones challenging the norm in fashion.” (Maggie Chan)
“People wanted to pursue a unique, cool, different image of fashion. This is why Vetements is providing them subculture inspired look. People can stand out from the mainstream and claim themselves to be special when they are in the brands products.” (Harry Shan)
Gopnik - Гопник (Russian subculture) Gosha Rubchinskiy is going for a style between skater boy and Gopnik. Gopnik is a Russian pejorative word describing the uncivilized, ghetto, gangster-like teenage boy from the suburbs in Russia (themarginalist, 2017). Gopnik style’s common features are Kappa or Adidas tracksuits, Reebok or Adidas training wear, Nike Air Max sneakers, T-shirts being tucked into track pants and track pants being tucked into socks (Eror, 2017) (Figure 4-3). The Gopnik style has been successfully, firmly embedded into pop cultural hive mind by Gosha Rubchinskiy’s meteoric success (Eror, 2017).
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Figure 4-3: Gopnik style
4.4. Impacts on the fashion industry Casting models on Instagram The brands following the Post-Soviet trend often find their models through social media. They specifically look for people who rather have an underground image or are related to subculture (Feiereisen, 2016). Volkova often describe their working vibe as “spontaneous”. When she browses Instagram and sees someone’s Instagram profile that gives out a certain style or image that matches the brand, she will just text them through Instagram and invite them to be a model for them (Fox, 2016). ‘Instagram creates a window for everyone to reach the world easily. There are no geographical barriers, you don’t have to be famous or rich to
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send message to others on Instagram, everything happens instantly.’ said Volkova (Eror, 2017).
“I agree that the trend of casting models in fashion changed and the Post-Soviet trend definitely contributed to it. People are bored of seeing mainstream models. They tend to want something authentic, something truly underground or subculture – and through Instagram this can be achieved easily.” (Sarah Lam)
“In recent years the magazine that I’m working for tends to have more fashion editorials that invite cool kids from social media to be the models. Finding models through casting or model agencies is rather old school now; the models are not necessarily tall or in good shape. Having a certain image style on Instagram can be even more important.” (Vincent Choi)
Gosha Rubchinskiy even stated he doesn’t like hiring models though agencies; instead, one time he posted a public casting call on Instagram. People were only required to send their name and age through Instagram – not even body measurements were required (i-D Magazine, 2016). In Lotta Volkova’s vision these sourcing networks are easier for them to find the right cast to embody their vision.
Co-branding One of the significant features of the Post- Soviet trend is that they like to crossover with other brands to have a flexible brand positioning. Vetements collaborated with 18 different brands in its 2017 spring/summer show including Levi’s, Dr. Martens, Reebok, Juicy Couture 44
and Champion (Lindig, 2016). Gosha Rubchinskiy had collaborations with Burberry at its spring/summer 2018 show (Allwood, 2017). Balenciaga collaborated with Crocs to make platform sandals, a collaboration that became a hit topic on the Internet because of the to be said to be ugly sandals (Croft, 2017).
Figure 4-4: Gosha Rubchinskiy x Burberry (left), Balenciaga x Crocs (right)
“Vetements saved a lot of old, dying sportswear brands like Fila, Champion, and Kappa. Without Vetements collaborating with them or bringing back the cheap sportswear trend, they would have probably faded away in the industry. The collaboration contributed to those brands’ success tremendously. They made Champion cool again; people who cannot afford the collaboration products will still buy a Champion hoody because it seems to be related to Vetements.” (Vincent Choi)
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“It is very smart of them to do co-branding since collaborating with some sportswear brands will lower brand positioning. It creates an image that is easier to approach than the high-end luxury brands. I think this is very important for a high street wear brand. It also brings out the trend of collaboration in fashion like Louis Vuitton with Supreme and the newest collaboration between Fila and Fendi. It now seems like a trend for luxury brands to work with lower brands to gain the youthful, fun image.” (Kieran Ho)
Secret location pop-up stores The Demna brothers have shown no interest in opening physical stores since to open a store they need to have enough stock, which may lead to an oversaturation in products and decrease consumers’ purchase motivation (Socha, 2017). However, they are likely to set up pop-up stores with a special strategy. They held several pop-up stores before and with a special strategy. The details of the pop-up stores are hidden, no exact time or location, they only announce they city that the pop-up is going to be in (Stanley, 2017). In 2017 a Vetements pop-up event was held in Hong Kong. The Instagram announcing post gained more than 28K likes. The secret location strategy successfully drew public’s attention and created discussion (McGarrigle, 2017). Many people eventually went to the pop-up event and created a long queue, even the products they were selling were insanely high-priced and bad taste souvenirs like fridge magnets or ridiculous accessories like sleeping masks (Danforth, 2017). Previous similar pop-ups by the brand were also held in South Korea and Los Angeles in unexpected locations like a dry cleaning store (Dhillon, 2017). 46
“That pop-up store strategy was pretty impressive, despite the stupid souvenir products. I agree that it is a very good fashion business strategy. It has created so many discussions, even my friends were tagging me at the Instagram post. Suddenly everyone was discussing where the pop-up would be going to be. It didn’t disappoint us cause eventually they set up the pop-up at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, and with all those DHL trucks it was a very unique shopping experience. I was there too.” (Harry Shan)
Figure 4-5: Vetements Hong Kong pop-up
Death of Cat Walk In 2017 Vetements announced it would scrap catwalk shows and showcase their new season’s products at their Paris showroom instead (Alexander, 2017). According to
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Alexander’s interview (2017), Demna Gvasalia said Vetements is not going to do shows in the fashion industry’s classical system anymore. Demna Gvasalia tried to create innovation in fashion runway, did shows in a sex club or a church, combined menswear and womenswear show, brought forward the season. He thinks its becoming repetitive and exhausting, he wanted to present it in a more surprising way (Murray, 2017).
“One of the most significant features of the trend is to be rebellious. They wanted to be different and non-conforming to the rules. They believe are the new generation that going to change the fashion industry and bring a new system. For instance they tired to cancel runway to challenge the system. However this move didn’t go well because this Fall/Winter 2018 Paris Menswear fashion week Vetements showed up again. It’s probably because they realized it’s not that easy to change the current fashion presentation system. However, they did have an impact and made people think about new fashion presentation format.” (Vincent Choi)
4.5. Visual Analysis In this part the method “Rhetoric of the Image” by Barthes is used in order to understand in what way the certain style is created by their visual image and the process of their consumer receiving that certain style. The images are from influencers following the Post-Soviet trend or from the brands’ Instagram. In the “Rhetoric of the Image” image analysis method a threefold study technique is used. First the denotation of the image will be studied, which means what can an audience visually see on the page, the literal meaning of the signifier. Next is the connotation which means the secondary meaning of the signifier. For example for 48
an image of a rose the denotation is the flower itself and the connotation can be love, romance, and happiness. The last is the linguistic message, which basically means the words that you can understand in the image. The images are shown to the interviewees and then they were asked about the denotation, connotation and linguistic message that they get from the images.
Lotta Volkova’s Images Lotta Volkova is the stylist of Vetements, Balenciaga and Gosha Rubchinskiy. She is the biggest contributor in terms of the creativity management in visual aspects. She is the center part in this Post-Soviet aesthetic image style. Moreover her proficiency in managing an Instagram presence is high, she thinks that Instagram gives people the opportunity to reach out to anyone, regardless of their economic status or geographic barriers (Khayyer, 2016). In her vision the clothes from three brands are just the clothes that she and her friends would like to wear. The concept is about redefining the sense of coolness, she and her friends, people from the Post-Soviet region, are creating an exclusive image for themselves. The styling aesthetic is about mixing different cultural or subcultural codes in an authentic and real perspective, instead of just looking glamour and glossy (Woloszyk, 2017). Her main job in the trend is to build up this raw and subcultural brand image to generate an exclusive coolness.
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Figure 4-6: Image 1 - From Lotta Volkova’s Instagram
A few pictures from her Instagram were used in this research. They were shown to the interviewees during interview. Interviewees were asked question on what the can see in the image and how do they feel about it. In general what the interviewees see in the image 1 (Figure 4-6) are a few visually western young boys in a house that they guessed is in Europe because of the interior style. One of them is standing on the windowsill, one is using a printed scarf to cover his head and one is holding a speaker in his hand. The room is a bit messy and dim. There are wine and other beverage bottles on the table. The photo quality is in a non-professional style, more like an everyday picture taken with a camera phone.
The connotation the viewers get is the young teenagers’ joy and rebelliousness. Due to the scenery and the objects in the photo, we assume that the boys are having a party with drinks and music at night. By their posing including their facial expressions and gestures we assume they are having fun as for instance one boy is using the towel to cover his head in a funny
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way. Also the fearless feeling comes from that boy standing on the windowsill not seeming to be afraid of falling out. Furthermore, regarding the linguistic message of the image, we can see Lotta using two hashtags for the post. One is #Finalcountdown, so we can assume they are celebrating for a countdown of something, and the other hashtag is in Russian, suggesting the assumption that this picture was taken in Russia. Moreover, in the comment section some one called that towel a ‘megadeath towel’. Megadeth is a heavy metal band from America. It gives the image a linkage to subculture instantly.
Figure 4-7: Image 2 - From Lotta Volkova’s Instagram In the second image (Figure 4-7), regarding the linguistic message, we assume that the photo was taken at Lotta’s birthday party because people have left comments wishing her a happy birthday. Regarding the denotation, we see Lotta herself hugging her friends and they are in a
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bathroom, in front of a mirror taking selfies. There is beer on and one of Lotta’s heels is on the sink table. When it comes to the connotation, we assumed they are close friends and taking selfies in the bathroom during her birthday party. They look very close because of their intimate posing and one can assume they are having fun because of their cheerful facial expressions. They seem to be stylish because of their outfits and the Balenciaga heel on Lotta’s feet.
Figure 4-8: Image 3 - From Lotta Volkova’s Instagram
In image 3 (Figure 4-8), interviewees saw Lotta herself next to a guy and some people in the background. The photographer used flash because the room is rather dark, there were only a few red lights on the celling. Lotta is dressed in animal print heel leggings. She is in a rather 52
bold and intense make up and in a weird dancing posture. The guy next to her is laughing and taking a sip from his beer. In terms of connotation, we guessed Lotta is having a night out clubbing with her friends. The atmosphere is rather joyful because of her posture. She is dancing in her own way and doesn’t seem to care about people capturing it. In general the photo conveys a fun and fashionable atmosphere.
Figure 4-9: Image 4 - From Lotta Volkova’s Instagram
For Image 4 (Figure 4-9) flashlight was used as well, it captured a bar with quite a unique interior. It is dirty and messy, only red lights are used in the bar. The style of the bar is extremely raw and messy, there are bank notes that have signs on it and are stuck all over the ceiling. Underwear and bras are hanging from the ceiling as well. Even an empty beer can got
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stuck under the celling. The wall is covered with bank notes and stickers and marker handwritings. The connotation the interviewees received is that it is perhaps a very extreme bar, maybe a fetish or a heavy metal themed bar. Because of the messy decoration the bar looks pretty low-end and cheap. Having bras and underwear hanging from the celling makes people imagine how drunk the customers that hung their underwear under the celling must have been. The interviewees all agreed the photo gives a hardcore, rebellious and underground vibe.
To sum up the connotation message, these images reflect Lotta’s and her crew’s lifestyle authentically. By showing certain sceneries, property and people, Lotta is trying to embrace the Soviet lifestyle. Moreover, having her dressed stylishly in the photos is lifting the ordinariness of the photos. She posts these Soviet teenagers’ lifestyle photos on Instagram to link and connect the idea of fashion to Soviet and to create a new trend in the fashion industry. She wants to change people’s minds – when it comes to fashion, it is not only about Paris or Milan in Western Europe but also the Post-Soviet countries. She is questioning the traditional aesthetic built by western fashion brands.
Vetements’ Images Lotta Volkova has a huge influence on the images of Vetements because of her contribution to a big part of the visual work done for Vetements. Most of her raw, authentic Soviet lifestyle visual image has been portrayed as the brand image as well as the visual communication of Vetements. 54
Figure 4-10: Image 5 - From Vetements’ Instagram
In image 5 (Figure 4-10), regarding the linguistic message we can get the information that the picture is about the Vetements & Reebok collaboration from the #VETEMENTSxREEBOK hashtag. The denotation is a man squatting in front of a corner where the wall is covered in graffiti. He looks a bit tarnished and ghetto and from his features we may assume he is from Eastern Europe. He is also wearing a red tracksuit with a small Reebok logo on it, a pair of Vetements socks and a pair of Vetements & Reebok collaborated sneakers with a graffiti print on them. As for the connotation interviewees assumed it might be a Russian who is linked with trashy subculture and promoting Vetements’ & Reebok’s latest collaboration. The image also connotes the Soviet heritage with this background style.
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Figure 4-11: Image 6 - Vetements’ window display
Image 6 (Figure 4-11) is a photo of Vestments’ window display at the New York Department store Saks. The word ‘VETEMENTS’ is the only linguistic message in the picture, so we can assume it is a window display for Vetements. In addition, a pile of clothes is in the window display. Judging by their appearance and due to them being creased the clothes look rather old and used. However the background interior looks pretty fancy and modern. As for connotation, the image gives a messy and trashy vibe. The clothes are not folded or presented well but instead they are piled up like rubbish, being thrown on the floor and cluttered up like a pile of washing. This window display has no connotation of the concept of luxury, which Vetements as a high street brand should have.
To conclude, the visual image of Vetements is about conveying a brand image of authenticity and ordinariness. It is the distinction of beautifulness and ugliness with a mix of high and low 56
fashion. It is referencing the relationship between luxury fashionistas and the ordinary working class (Sevastian, 2017). This image is an expression for the Soviet life experiences and the contemporary lifestyle of Russians. Vetements is selling a vision of realism.
Gosha Rubchinskiy’s Images Gosha Rubchinskiy uses a rather interesting strategy for its Instagram account comparing to the rest of the collective. In 2016 he started to delete all his photos from his Instagram account. He started to keep his account to only have a few number of photos each times, so every time he uploads a photo an old post gets deleted.
Figure 4-12: Image 7 - From Gosha Rubchinskiy’s Instagram
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Image 7 (Figure 4-12) is from an Instagram account that reposts Gosha’s posted photos as an archive, to keep a record of the posts that Gosha deleted. In the image we can see three boys who are skating. Interviewees assumed they are Russian by their features like blonde hair. They seem to skate often because of their skater boy dressing style. The connotation message is promoting the Russian teenagers’ – especially the boys’ – image. It is the image of Gosha Rubchinskiy’s target customer. This certain style has successfully marketed the brand to represent the Post-Soviet youth culture that brought him international recognition among the high-street wear enthusiasts.
Figure 4-13: Image 8 - From Gosha Rubchinskiy’s Instagram
The other pictures that Gosha posted on Instagram before (Figure 4-13) also reflect the relationship between Gosha Rubchinskiy and subculture. The picture is monochrome and
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based on the architectural style one can assume it was taken on the street in some European country. Two teenagers are sitting on the stairs with their backpacks. One has a Mohawk haircut and the other one an undercut with the sides being shaved off and curly hair on the top of his head. Their dressing style connotes the punk style as well: ripped jeans, denim open vest, Scottish check pattern trousers and raw, vintage leather boots.
The visual communication style of Gosha Rubchinskiy reflects the philosophy of his brand, promoting the Russian youth culture. It is also the fundamental element of its success. Its attractiveness is based on being very realistic and authentic towards its inspiration, not design clothes to fit the trend or market. Even the visual style is not eye-catching or appealing; its specialty is revealing what the market lacks.
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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
In this post-postmodern time, the Post-Soviet fashion trend has risen up and dominated the fashion industry. It has questioned the postmodern business system as well as the notion of luxury. This study is responding to this surge in the fashion industry, aimed to identify the trend, study its business and brand strategies and analyze the relationship between its visual communication & brand image. The research and analysis provides an insight into the changes in fashion regarding culture, design philosophy and demands in branding, for insiders who intend to study the trend influence. Balenciaga, Gosha Rubchinskiy and Vetements were taken as examples to analyze the relationship between the rise, brand image and visual language. Gosha Rubchinskiy, Demna Gvasalia and Lotta Volkova were as well studied to give an in-depth analysis of the design philosophy and background, as they are the key contributors. Holistic and comprehensive understanding of the trend image and visual strategies has been obtained. Qualitative research has been applied to conduct in-depth interviews in order to get the first-hand information and opinions.
The interpretation of the data has indicated 3 points: how significantly their designs featuring an authentic style contributed to the brand image, as well as how the brand image and
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business strategy created demands of their items in the fashion system and the impacts that the Post-Soviet collective has brought to the industry.
According to the research, realism is the focus point in this case. The contributors have successfully evoked authenticity in their designs. Faults are highlighted as metaphors of authenticity, incidental failures are embraced to give fashion a new perspective to see things in a new real way. Bad taste fashion and ugliness became the new principle. Gratuitous trashiness and purposely poorly made, out of shape design features coupled with appropriation to consumerism was supposed to be unpleasant to ethical designers. Somehow they marked themselves with a couture price and blended in the commercial value, such as selling low-end sportswear brand collaborations to the premium customers.
The combination between ugly and good-looking, luxury and cheap, tasteful and ghetto, good silhouette and bad proportion, outdated and trendy, has generated a sense of ridiculousness. The irrelevance is the new rule. Because of the predictable commercial cycle in the fashion industry, the audience is starting to get bored, that’s why this new aesthetic is being enjoyed. Besides showing authenticity in its design, the visual images have also hugely added realness to the trend. By presenting the postmodern Soviet life as a realist ethos, it further leveled up the cynicism because it closely reflected the designers growing up background. This Soviet aesthetic reflected how the commercial and consumerism from Western Europe had flushed into the East after the Cold War. That is the reason it brought up the realism and chaos concept. Their marketing media, Instagram and campaigns are therefore selling this realism 61
postmodern Soviet lifestyle brand image to reveal a pragmatic real life rather than a fake, fancy dream. Their image style shows the reminiscence of Russia and Soviet, promoting a heritage style of the East.
Despite the brand image, which created values for the brands, the business strategy as well contributed to the increasing demand. The brands gained a tremendous success in the past two years in terms of profit. They changed the demand and supply strategy: producing in a slower pace, cancelling sub-season collections, only producing two seasons a year and limiting the amount of products being produced to prevent overproduction and to keep the demand remain high on the market. Sales and markdowns are prevented to keep their luxury and rarity. Turning the modern fashion movement from trickled down to up by not satisfying a conspicuous consumption, but instead remain high-priced and keep the market needy.
In this research, the impacts that the Post-Soviet collective brought to the fashion industry have also been shown. Besides the most obvious influence on the fashion trend, their design philosophies have also revealed what people want and need: authenticity and rarity. They successfully showcased a business model that constantly creates a sense of exclusivity; more brands are trying to adopt their business module and brand image. Furthermore, they even brought cultural impact to fashion, just as challenging the Western culture that had been dominating the industry for long. Questioning the existing fashion performing system like cancelling runway, cat walks, holding more unpredictable pop-ups or bringing diversity into
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the selection of models.
In conclusion, the Post- Soviet collective gained success by creating rarity. To make something exclusive and created shortage in supply brings desire and increased need – instead of creating and selling too many attainable goods which are popularized and lose their sense of luxury; not only in production but also distribution in terms of marketing. Vetements and Balenciaga brought back the conspicuous consumption into the market. Even though Gosha Rubchinskiy is not aiming to be a premium brand, he gained such a momentum and brought significant impacts to other luxury brands he has collaborated with. Last but not least, Lotta Volkova cultivated this trend in terms of the expressive perspective.
Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake – the Japanese designers held their fashion revolution to show the world the Japanese aesthetic in the 1970s. In the early 1980s, there were Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler who brought minimalism to fashion. In the late 80s, the Antwerp Six and Maison Martin Margiela created a wave of deconstruction in fashion. Designers such as Calvin Klein and Jil Sander presented the minimalism in the 1990s. In the 2000s we have our legendary John Galliano. And perhaps now is the time for the Post-Soviet collective to dominate the fashion industry, their footprints are worth studying and analyzing, hopefully they can further accomplish their aesthetic in the postmodern fashion system.
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