Get to Know Vetements, the French Label Behind That Black Hoodie Kanye West Keeps Wearing

What you need to know about the label behind Kanye's new favorite hoodie.

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Complex Original

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If there is one thing we have learned this year during the many appearances of Kanye West, it is that he really appreciates a good sweatshirt. Over the past few months, his rotation has included a velour burgundy hoodie, a black velvet sweatshirt by Haider Ackermann and most recently a black hoodie by Vetements

Kanye was seen in the Vetements addition to his wardrobe after arriving at LAX two days ago, but Ye was spotted sporting the French label all over Paris during fashion week. Whether he was sitting front row at Christian Dior, taking a stroll with Lorde or hanging with Kim Kardashian, he was wearing the hoodie. 

 

 

Fairly new to the game, Vetements is only in its third season, but the head designer, Demna Gvasalia, is a veteran in the style world. Gvasalia attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and then went on to work for fashion houses like Maison Martin Margiela and Louis Vuitton, before launching the new line a year and a half ago.

Named after the French word for "clothes," Vetements, was created by a collective of seven designers in a reactionary move against the traditional industry business model. "My friends and I were sick of working in a system that was kind of derailing itself—designers trying to reinvent the brand and come up with new concepts every six months—and we wanted a creative outlet," Gvasalia told Style.com.

Each season, the designers consciously disregard any ideas behind the collection and focus solely on the product by creating minimal wearable pieces like reinterpreted military jackets, sweatpants and T-shirts. 

Gvasalia, who was also a semifinalist in the second annual LVMH Prize contest, presented the Vetements Fall/Winter 2015 collection in Paris, where of course Ye was in the audience. The men's and women's clothing was another edgy take on classic silhouettes.

"It was a lot about the attitudes of wearing the clothes," Gvasalia told T Magazine about the collection, which featured light-washed jeans, oversized MA-1 jackets and Kanye's prized hoodie. Vetements' aesthetic is reminiscent to the fits you could put together at a vintage store with a slight avant-garde twist. But, as Kanye has demonstrated, even the most understated pieces can become everyday style essentials.

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To see the rest of the collection head to Style.com.

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