Demna Gvasalia ( ka, დემნა გვასალია ; born 25 March 1981), known as Demna ( ) is a Georgian fashion designer, currently the

creative director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

Balenciaga Balenciaga SA ( ) is a luxury fashion house founded in 1919 by the Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga in San Sebastian, Spain. Balenciaga produces ready-to-wear, footwear, handbags, and accessories and licenses its name and branding to C ...

and the co-founder of

Vetements VETEMENTS (from ''vêtements'' []; French for "clothing") started in 2014 as a luxury fashion brand and "design collective" founded by Georgian fashion designers Demna Gvasalia and Guram Gvasalia. The brand became popular in just three short seas ...

Early life and education

Demna was born in Georgia in 1981, to a

Georgian Orthodox The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonly ...

Christian family of Georgian father and Russian mother. He fled at age 12, during the 1992-1993 Russo-Georgian war in Abkhazia, and was forced to live in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

. His family lived in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

from 2001 onwards. Demna studied international economics for four years at

Tbilisi State University Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University ( ka, ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი ''Ivane Javaxishvi ...

and later attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, where he graduated with a Master's degree in Fashion Design in 2006.Miles Socha (September 16, 2019
EXCLUSIVE: Demna Gvasalia Exits Vetements
''

Women's Wear Daily ''Women's Wear Daily'' (also known as ''WWD'') is a fashion-industry trade journal often referred to as the "Bible of fashion".Horyn, Cathy"Breaking Fashion News With a Provocative Edge" ''The New York Times''. (August 20, 1999). It provides infor ...

''.

Career

In 2006, Demna collaborated with

Walter van Beirendonck Walter Van Beirendonck (born 4 February 1957 in Brecht, Belgium) is a Belgian fashion designer. He is the head of the Fashion Department at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. He graduated in 1980 from the Royal Arts Academy in Antwerp. ...

on his men’s collections. In 2009, Demna joined

Maison Martin Margiela Maison Margiela, formerly ''Maison Martin Margiela'', is a French luxury fashion house founded by Belgian designer Martin Margiela andJenny Meirensin 1988 and headquartered in Paris. The house produces both haute couture-inspired artisanal collec ...

, where he was responsible for women’s collections until 2013.Balenciaga appoints Demna Gvasalia as artistic director of the collections

Kering Kering () is a French-based multinational corporation specializing in luxury goods. It owns the brands Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Yves Saint Laurent. The timber-trading company Pinault S.A. was founded in 1963, b ...

, press release of October 7, 2015. In 2013, he was appointed senior designer of women’s ready-to-wear collections at

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end Luxury goods, luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton (designer), Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its produc ...

, initially under

Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, which was produced for approximately 15 years, before it was d ...

and briefly under

Nicolas Ghesquière Nicolas Ghesquière (; born 9 May 1971) is a French-Belgian fashion designer who has been the women's creative director of the house of Louis Vuitton (owned by LVMH) since 2013. Early life Ghesquière was born in Comines, Nord, the younger of ...

. Together with his brother Guram, Demna launched the brand

in 2014, along with a small group of anonymous friends, displaying their work in small gay clubs in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Demna has said that his original purpose with the brand was to subvert the

high fashion ''Haute couture'' (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start-to-finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became th ...

status quo. Vetements’ first women’s ready-to-wear collection was presented at

Paris Fashion Week Paris Fashion Week (french: Semaine de la mode de Paris) is a series of designer presentations held semiannually in Paris, France with spring/summer and autumn/winter events held each year. Dates are determined by the French Fashion Federation. ...

in 2014. The collective was nominated for the

LVMH LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (), commonly known as LVMH, is a French holding multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, headquartered in Paris. The company was formed in 1987 through the merger of fashion house ...

’s Young Fashion Designer Prize after producing 3 collections. In 2015, Demna became the creative director of

, succeeding Alexander Wang. In 2019, Demna left Vetements to pursue new artistic ventures, having accomplished his goals with the company, telling

Highsnobiety Highsnobiety is a global fashion and lifestyle media brand founded in 2005 by David Fischer. It was bought by German e-commerce giant Zalando in 2022. Highsnobiety is headquartered in Berlin and has offices in Amsterdam, London, Milan, New York ...

that he had "accomplished ismission of a

conceptualist In metaphysics, conceptualism is a theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind. Intermediate between nominalism and realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical co ...

and design innovator." In August 2021, Demna collaborated with

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

, acting as the creative director for West’s second ''Donda'' album listening event, held at the

Mercedes-Benz Stadium Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Opened in August 2017 as a replacement for the Georgia Dome, it serves as the home stadium of the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) ...

. At the 2021

Met Gala The Met Gala, or Met Ball, formally called the Costume Institute Gala or the Costume Institute Benefit, is an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City. It is popularly r ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Demna walked the stairs with reality television star

Kim Kardashian Kimberly Noel Kardashian (formerly West; born October 21, 1980) is an American socialite, media personality, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the sex ...

, both in his head-to-toe body feature obscuring Black Balenciaga designs completely masked, with

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

offering that events rules had been rewritten. In November of 2022 Balenciaga dropped its holiday ad campaign, featuring children holding teddy bears in bondage harnesses and costumes, as well a photo that included an excerpt of a document from a court ruling relating to child pornography. The backlash against the images has been swift, with the hashtag #cancelBalenciaga trending across

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

and many accusing the brand and Demna of condoning pedophilia and child exploitation.

Design

Demna developed a unique style as his company,

, grew in size and popularity. Much of Demna's approach still stems from his initial purpose of creating subversive fashion. Collections such as Fall/Winter 2017 included design inspired by archetypes, diverging from the typical

haute couture ''Haute couture'' (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start-to-finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became th ...

method of radical redesign and

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

appearance. Other common themes include baggy, loose-fitting clothing, and street-style jackets. In April 2021 he presented his new Pre-Fall 2021 collection with the

brand, marking a new line of design and personal thinking, as promoted by

Vanity Teen ''Vanity Teen'' is an independent biannual fashion magazine based in New York, United States and London, United Kingdom, edited by Toni Pérez and Luis Alonso Murillo. It features young artists' work of new models from agencies around the world. ...

magazine.

Awards

Demna won the International Award for Vetements and Balenciaga at the

CFDA Fashion Awards The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA), founded in 1962 by publicist Eleanor Lambert, and headquartered in Manhattan, is a not-for-profit trade association comprising a membership of over 450 American fashion and accessory des ...

in 2017. He also won the Accessories Designer of the Year award at

the Fashion Awards The Fashion Awards, known as the British Fashion Awards until 2016, is an annual ceremony established in the United Kingdom in 1989 to showcase both British and international individuals and businesses who have made the most outstanding contribu ...

2018 Gvasalia won the Global Women’s Designer award at the

in 2021. On September 27, 2021, Georgian President

Salome Zourabichvili Salome Zourabichvili ( ka, სალომე ზურაბიშვილი, ; born 18 March 1952) is a Franco-Georgian political figure and former diplomat who currently serves as the fifth President of Georgia, in office since December 2018 ...

awarded Demna with the

Order of Honor Order of Honor may refer to: *Order of Honour (Armenia) *Order of Honor (Belarus), established in 1995 * Order of Honor (Georgia) *Order of Honour (Greece), an award that replaced the abolished Royal Order of George I in 1975 *Order of Honour (Moldo ...

for his contributions to the popularization of Georgia abroad.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gvasalia, Demna Living people LGBT people from Georgia (country) LGBT fashion designers Fashion designers from Georgia (country) Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumni Businesspeople from Tbilisi Georgian emigrants to Germany 1981 births Kering people 21st-century LGBT people 21st-century businesspeople Tbilisi State University alumni Recipients of the Order of Honor (Georgia)

Early life and education

Career

Design

Awards

See also

References