Guram Gvasalia, co-founder of Vetements alongside his brother Demna Gvasalia (who left the brand in September), has announced plans for a platform that will support young and emerging designers. His proposals include introducing co-working spaces at his offices, talks with students about the fashion industry, and providing scholarships.
Gvasalia revealed the plans at WWD’s Apparel & Retail CEO Summit at the InterContinental New York Barclay hotel yesterday, where he spoke of the importance of togetherness in making a company. “Most of the time it’s probably not one person who is designing the brand. No, at the big brands, they have 60 people under the designer,” he said.
“What we do is put the right people with the right talent together in groups, and we give them the possibility to create something that is new and does not already exist – something that is young, modern and cool,” Gvasalia added. Vetements will launch the platform next year – details of which are still relatively limited – with Gvasalia saying that he and his team “will be like a big brother” to the young talent.
The Vetements co-founder also revealed plans to grow the company in different directions. WWD reported that: “With a big ready-to-wear business, the plan is to start separate businesses around that such as ones for shoes, underwear and sunglasses that will each have their own distribution channels”. Gvasalia added: “you take your company and you create small companies around it”.
