Feeds to Follow: @avanope
I first discovered the work of Ava Nirui through my Instagram explore tab. The photo was centered around her shoes, custom white "dad shoes" with Givenchy emblazoned across the upper in champion font. The shoe gave rise up to her ankle a pair of Gucci socks and Gucci print pants-bold move. The whole fit was loud, just centered around her ankle; the outfit was more visually striking and contrasting than the fits of most other fashion Instagrammers.
Image via.
The photo seemed to capture and satirize every trend in the fashion world right now: the dad shoes mocked the cult fanaticism over the Raf Simmons Ozweego 2, the overpowering Gucci branding poking light at our sudden renewed obsession for the brand, the Champion script seemingly targeted at Vetements' own riff on the iconic branding. The image speaks of how Ava Nirui is, and her message to the fashion community. She is designing garments and fits that perfectly subvert the current trends in the fashion industry, and simultaneously mocking the hyper-consumerist brand-oriented fashion world today.
Ava Nuiri, for those who haven't been indoctrinated into her eclectic feed is a fashion writer, photographer, and stylist. You may know her from her articles for the Dazed magazine and blog, or her photography of Vfiles events. However her Instagram has recently been taken over by her own designs, vibrant creations matching the theme of the photo I first saw. She created an entire line of sneakers to the same tune as the ones before, riffed on vintage polo crewnecks with Prada branding, and even made a bedazzled Gucci inhaler. Her designs are as eye-catching and eccentric as the industry that inspired them.
Currently the fashion industry is dominated by fast fashion and runway to closet garments. Vetements is the dominant brand in all fashion talks nowadays and their entire philosophy is ready-to-wear garments, even abandoning the traditional seasonal schedule of shows and collections. The shift in the fashion world has followed accordingly, with Gucci, Prada, and many of the great traditional fashion houses shifting to ready-wear as well. The criticism is just as prevalent as the clothes themselves, with many lamenting this shift in attitude as a departure from the fashion industry's aesthetic roots towards an entirely consumerist product, a phenomena which many a critic have dramatically labeled the death of traditional fashion.
Whether Ava is embracing this shift in fashion or opposes it is unclear. On the one hand her clothes perfectly satirize the change, juxtaposing between highly exclusive labels and mundane norm-core garments and brands. She illuminates how brand-centric we are as fashion consumers, where a label is worth more than the actual aesthetics of the clothing we are wearing. This concept has been played upon by Raf Simmons and Vetements but those labels too have become fetishized by their cult-like consumers. Ava bedazzles Cheetos bags and drapes them over her shoulder as if they were Hermes. We'll buy anything if it has a designer name, but is that a bad thing?
Ava illuminates the joyful playfulness that these garments have once again. Whereas before fashion adhered to strict rules and a foot in opulence and extravagance, now the rules have shifted, and a hoodie holds just as much place on a runway as would a dress. The line between designer and consumer is being blurred, and if one person can illustrate this phenomena, it's Ava Nuiri.
Follow her at @avanope.
