On Everything #134: Demna’s Full On Embrace of Vulgarity Speaks Volumes About Our Culture

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The sparkled dust is settling from the fallout of Demna’s Gucci runway debut, and with a couple of day’s worth of philosophical distance it is now worth examining what the f**k it is that we just saw. Whether you liked it or not – and judging by the collective outcry and the pelting of the predictable mainstream fashion media Demna sycophancy with verbal manure, the vast majority did not – the show is worth further reflection, since the fashion industry has anointed Demna its cultural hero, its zeitgeist whisperer.

There is a school of thought that art is supposed to tell us about the world we live in. Many people confuse this stance with thinking that art should merely reflect that world and not examine or critique it. By such a twisted funhouse mirror standard Demna is fashion’s Andy Warhol, the late stage Warhol, who after an attempt on his life decided to jettison his early deft meditations on pop culture in favor of the “making money is art” mentality. So, in reality maybe Demna is more of a Jeff Koonz.

In any case, if we accept the premise that Demna is good at capturing the cultural moment, his show underscored the fact that this moment is one of unadulterated vulgarity, that we live in the world suspended between a Dubai shopping mall, a Mykonos nightclub, an arriviste rapper’s crib, a footballer’s first big paycheck shopping spree, and Trump’s gilded Mar-a-Lago toilets. This world is garish and vacuous, amoral and ugly, a Las Vegas in sartorial form.