Farewell Y/Venture, The Model That Proved To Style That Bonkers Is Finest
After 14 years in enterprise, Y/Venture is shuttering, abandoning a legacy of uncompromisingly whacky design that modified how style acolytes take into consideration clothes. Below the custody of each Yohan Serfaty – its late co-founder – and Glenn Martens – the Flemish mad professor of a designer who turbocharged its repute – notions of stylish have been turned, twisted and warped.
All through its historical past, Y/Venture was all the time anchored in witty – at time, head-scratching, even – contradictions: T-shirts with disconnected necklines, doubled-ended belts, cufflink-folded jean legs – ostensibly awkward constructions that gave approach to a uncooked intercourse attraction. Nonetheless, despite its at-first-glance weirdness, it managed to form the tastes of a technology of style followers, from studio employees who understood the technical nerdery {that a} Y/Venture piece was a product of to a number of the world’s greatest stars. Rihanna was certainly one of its many notable co-signs, sporting autumn/winter 2018’s layered Ugg boots for Coachella and a sandblasted Canadian tuxedo on the peak of her second being pregnant. In addition to this, a collection of underground-mainstream crossovers have additionally embodied the label’s distinct sensibility. Charli XCX was a frequent wearer, even modelling within the label’s autumn/winter 2024 lookbook, whereas her bestie Troye Sivan additionally plumped for the model’s cropped, hi-octane silhouettes all through the Sweat tour. Put plainly, Y/Venture was a second.
In fact, it wasn’t simply the superstar endorsements that made it what’s was, particularly within the early days when Serfaty – the model’s infamously enigmatic designer and co-founder – was on the helm. Darkish and drapey with a touch of Rick Owens, Y/Venture had picked up traction in Japan, nevertheless it wasn’t till Serfaty’s former first assistant Glenn Martens stepped in that the label started showing within the contexts of pop, hip-hop and Hollywood stylists.
From the outset, Martens introduced with him a sculptural knack – gleaned from research in inside structure, and time spent as a junior designer at Jean Paul Gaultier – that translated to imposing, uncanny silhouettes. Materials have been draped to bunch and stack round forearms and ankles, or to virtually cockily assert themselves, as in these folded-front bomber jackets.
All through, Martens’s tenure, odes to the gothic spire-studded vista of Bruges, the place he grew up, have been evident, however there was additionally a postmodern crux on the coronary heart of his strategy – one which positioned Y/Venture because the teenies and tweenies’ reply to Martin Margiela. Contemplate, for instance, spring/summer time 2016. Right here, Daisy Dukes got here with concave cutouts throughout the thigh, revealing pocket insides or a set of boxers styled beneath. Elsewhere, waistbands got here in twos, whereas for spring/summer time 2017, they dipped under the belt utterly, highlighting Martens’s ability as a sartorial joker.
Past its humour and gonzo intercourse attraction, although, the USP of Martens’s Y/Venture lay in the best way essentially the most on a regular basis objects and supplies – denim, for one – could be remodeled into clothes that seemed and felt palpably directional and distinct. And there was a way of fantasy and risk to them – poppered, hung with invisible straps, or threaded with malleable wires, their modifiability unlocked an limitless array of utterly novel appears, virtually demanding a level of irreverence and play from their wearers.
