JOS: It’s rare to see a designer wanting other people to be better.
VA: That’s all I’m about. The culture that I’m spearheading I’m also
giving back to because if we don’t make a foundation, then it doesn't
make sense. There’s a community that’s unheard that can make
clothes and make relevant decisions. Now we’re seeing that because
now they’re the consumer. They started saying, ‘Hey, we want this’.
JOS: So basically the new generation has said it’s time to change.
VA: Yeah. And I was there right before that when they were saying
‘Hey, we’re still just going to wear whatever’. The designers are like,
‘Hey, top down’. Now it comes bottom up. And I’m part of the bottom
up. That’s the vibe.
JOS: Is a shift in the fashion guard happening at the moment?
VA: It’s not a coincidence that every generation’s design is different. For
the presiding generation, you had to go to fashion school – the industry
was smaller and more insular. It’s getting exponentially more saturated
to the point where the person on the
street has seen a runway show and can
talk about it at dinner. Now, myself
and others, we’ve downloaded how
the rhythm works but don’t have the
formal background. My inspirations
are skateboarding, Guns N’ Roses,
Nirvana and Michael Jordan. And I’m
an architect. I’m against the whole
‘Oh, I went to school to do one thing
and I’ve never been to a concert’
thing. I have specific lived memories
and I apply them to fashion. That’s
where the shift is coming from.
JOS: If you had the opportunity to
revitalise one of the historic fashion
houses, would you?
VA: I’m open to everything. I want
to define the generation, not just
participate in it.
JOS: Is the key to building a brand
today to be disruptive?
VA: Hundred per cent. Peter Saville
was one of my mentors and 30 years
ago, when he was doing Joy Division
album covers and running around
London with a couple friends, they
were the only creatives. Fast forward
to 2017, everyone and their mother is
some sort of brand. Now the only way
to stand out is not even to design. It’s to
stand out from the pool of design. I’ve
learned that I’m not that much of a
disruptor for disruption’s sake. I’m only
into disruption for modernisation. How
does this whole engine update itself? I’m
just a cog in the wheel. So my ideas are for
myself but also for the system. That’s
what disruption is.
JOS: And is that why you’re doing so
many collaborations?
VA: That’s another thing. Off-White is
my résumé. It’s my submarine to explore
new space. And I collaborate because,
now, not only am I designing the object,
I’m playing with the emotion of the
brand. Off-White x Ikea is a dialogue between what people perceive as
Ikea and then also what Ikea really is. And I see Off-White as, like, we
might not make that product but we make it more relevant.
JOS: How’d the collaboration with Sarah Jessica Parker come about?
VA: I got an email and it was like, ‘Hey, hope you don’t mind me
shooting an email. What you’re doing is really great. I’ve been wearing
the same jeans for six months and my friends ask me if I wash them.’
And her son’s really into the brand. She actually sent me almost the only
review of the brand that I ever wanted. Her impression was the exact
impression that I had when I used to pitch the brand to friends before
I started. I wanted a brand that a teenage son and a mom have in the
household. Two different closets, two different aesthetics – one label.
JOS: Is there a new generation of super brands coming?
VA: I think there’s going to be a crash, so it’s an interesting time if
you were just focused on clothes. That’s why only 30 per cent of me is
focused on being a clothes designer- I’m more interested in art,
furniture, architecture.
JOS: Where are brands looking
for their next inspiration?
VA: Youth culture is still the
engine. My ideal fashion is going
to be defined by the youth, so the
industry is not going to necessarily
be dictating that. It’s whatever
the youth want to do.
JOS: Do you feel pressure being the
poster boy of the new generation
of creatives?
VA: I’m in the tornado of creating
where there’s no validation that
anyone can give me unless I make
something myself, so I don’t feel the
pressure because the pressure is less
than what I have in my head.
JOS: How do you find the time to DJ
as Flat White?
VA: My secret trick to being inspired
is DJing. Music is the pace of culture.
Communities happen around music.
JOS: So Flat White inspires
Off-W hite?
VA: Yeah. It’s like constant inspiration.
JOS: Is the music industry more
inclusive than the fashion industry?
VA: Yes, the fashion industry is like a
small town that someone tweeted the
location of and now it’s out of control.
JOS: I hear you’re opening Off-White
stores in Australia?
VA: Yeah, in Sydney and in Melbourne.
They’re unique spacial qualities. Not in
a figurative way but in the way it looks
and feels when you walk inside the store.
It’s important to control that message.
JOS: What do you love about Australia?
VA: Australia has its own unique identity
because it’s a little bit off the map. And
that’s what diversity is about – mixing
with other cultures, to find our
commonalities. n
“I’m open
to everything.
I want to define
the generation,
not just
participate in it.”
MEN OF THE YEAR 2017 GQ.COM.AU 157