You know the door situation is out of control when the creative director of the brand has to come outside and tug people from the melee.
It was madness on the Rue Cambon on Friday night ahead of the Vetements show, and no doubt Guram Gvasalia secretly relished the frenzied scene, having amassed a band of famous friends with whom he can talk expensive watches, diamond grills and how to dodge the paparazzi.
In the front row, Antoine Arnault stood out in his impeccable suit next to J Balvin in his gigantic white jacket and jumbo pants, and Tyga in a similar look but in black, a foil for Cher’s blond beehive to his right. Further down the row was Tommy Cash, a tractor-sized inner-tube framing his head and shoulders and foreshadowing the rounded pool-noodle shoulders of Gvasalia’s supersized fall collection.
It unfurled in chapters, opening with gargantuan tailoring with ramrod pool-noodle shoulders; then tight tanks and mega jeans with endless pant legs dragging on the carpet; then an evening segment of sparkling, second-skin gowns modeled by the likes of Carmen Kass and “Desperate Housewives” actress Marcia Cross, who looked seriously worried she might get tripped up in the extra-long skirt she hoisted to her best ability.
The show was peppered with visual jokes — a Donatella Versace lookalike here, the “South Park” stoner character Towlie fronting on a sweatshirt there — and a collaboration with Jean-Charles de Castelbajac reprising his teddy-bear coats in that bombastic Vetements way. Cristiano Ronaldo’s wife Georgina Rodriguez shimmied out in a soccer jersey lengthened into a gown bearing a big 7, her hubbie’s player number.
A queasiness crept in when the combination of a fridge-sized pantsuit and high heels got the best of one model, and she took a tumble. But the giant clothes kept pouring out by the meter, and she got swept up in the relentless flow of fabric.
No doubt this show will yield zillions of impressions, and fuel the hype behind this edgy Swiss brand. It also felt like a doormat-sized gauntlet was thrown down in the battle for supremacy in the oversized category.
