If Streetwear Is The New Luxury, What Does That Mean For Fashion?

The fact that upstart streetwear labels and storied luxury brands are becoming ever closer entwined is obvious to anyone with even a minor interest in menswear; it’s a trend that’s been building for around a decade. However, that relationship is evolving – and fast. While previously we’ve seen streetwear infiltrate the highest echelons of fashion through collaborations (see: Supreme x Louis Vuitton, Gosha Rubchinsky x Burberry, Off-White x Moncler), we’re now seeing the people responsible for building these streetwear brands into fan behemoths being hired to head up time-established fashion labels: Vetements founder Demna Gvasalia took the reigns as creative director of Balenciaga in 2015 (and in the process made the house formerly known for couture womenswear more famous recently for its chunk-tastic trainers) and earlier this year Virgil Abloh, Kanye West’s former creative collaborator and the man behind Off-White, showed his first collection as men’s creative director of Louis Vuitton. This shift feels significant: what started out as luxury looking to capitalise on the popularity of sellout streetwear brands has become something more – streetwear is now leading the conversation. Read more at British GQ.