Actually, according to Demna Gvasalia, Vetements is doing fine

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOHNNY DUFORT. DEMNA GVASALIA. COURTESY OF BALENCIAGA.

Highsnobiety published a piece on Thursday that claimed designer Demna Gvasalia’s luxury streetwear label Vetements was on the outs with regards to both sales and popularity. Several anonymous sources who, according to Highsnobiety, included “buyers from retailers stocking the brand, a former Vetements employee and a sales associate from a luxury department store that carries the label” seemed to suggest that the brand was struggling to maintain the momentum it had gained in 2015 after the debut of its wildly successful spring/summer ’16 collection.

However, Guram Gvasalia, Vetements CEO and younger brother of Demna, sent a statement to WWD refuting this claim, noting that the independent company is actually doing very well in the market—even showing a growth of over 50 percent compared to the previous year. He wrote, “To the disappointment of all of the haters, we would like to declare that Vetements is in the strongest creative and financial state it has ever been.”

Elder Gvasalia, who is also the creative director for the French fashion house Balenciaga, responded to the article on Vetements’s Instagram. He wrote, “Vetements does not support wannabe journalism based on lies and gossip. Today my team at Vetements is the strongest it has ever been.” He goes on to say, “Fashion is not about hype, nor about useless gossip or opportunistic pseudo journalism, fashion is about clothes. So is Vetements.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg8s_T5Hpvk/?taken-by=vetements_official

The WWD article also includes a statement from Highsnobiety in response to this information from Vetements. One part of the statement reads, “While Vetements is far from dead, to many in the industry—especially the selective market we cater to—it is ‘over.'” The statement doesn’t mention if the writer of the Highsnobiety article verified his sources or reached out to the brand for comment.