Balenciaga and Vetements are both two current brands in popular culture, circulating on Instagram, alternative and mainstream fashion magazines, and worn by influencers. The 'Balenciaga look' is something re-created and pastiched in fashion photography and advertising- increasingly more so in the present day. Gvasalia says how "Vetements is known for a certain kind of irony, or questioning..." and I think that is present through the signifiers found in their advertising. Questioning whats beautiful is also breaking the boundaries of other brands such as Chanel and Gucci to an extent- or at least their advertising in comparison. Vetements makes satirical statements on the world at the present day, and all of their clothes carry a social message which is just as (if not more) important than the garment itself.
Just as fashion photographers are currently capturing the vernacular, often working class/everyday culture, established high fashion brands are now doing the same. These aspects of popular culture are recognisable to most people, so can be leveraged to create a common understanding between the brand and consumer (or audience), and be used as a tool to possibly benefit society by what it symbolises. For example, people know Ikea as flatpack, quite cheap Swiss furniture - and meatballs! However, other connotations are humour, play, having a laugh/road trip with friends, new beginnings, moving house, carrying clothes, the list goes on.
Gvasalia understands the history of fashion and spent extensive time studying the design mind of Christobel Balenciaga, to understand who he designed for and what Balenciaga stood for. With this information, he is leveraging a 'authentic' point of view to an extent, yet putting a modern spin on to help make Balenciaga the brand of 2017/18.
This links to the essay as Balenciaga is a symbol of 2017/18 and will be recognised as so in popular culture/fashion history in years time. Just as we look back on the 1920's, 90 years from now people will be looking back on editorials and adverts of today and trying to understand what these times are like,
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