“This brand is a joke,” “I hate you,” and “Is this supposed to be good?,” are everyday comments on AVAVAV‘s social media account. In a world where online critique can be exaggerated and entirely misinformed, creative director Beate Karlsson chose to center these negative comments as the inspiration behind her Fall/Winer 2024 show.
Upon entrance, guests were given branded plastic gloves and buckets of trash to throw at the models as they passed by while digital screens blasted nasty comments AVAVAV has received. Models were hit with banana peels, water bottles, coffee cups and junk as a metaphor for the online clutter spewed by social media trolls. Reclaiming autonomy and power back for her brand, Karlsson offered a sense of raw honesty infrequently captured on fashion week runways.
According to the creative director, this collection is her favorite to date with sheer dresses, oversized collared shirts, the brand’s signature four-toed boots and a new Eastpak collaboration.
Below, check out the frenzied chaos in our recap video and hear more from Karlsson on the show’s concept and collection.
You’ve gained huge industry attention for your past few runway shows, how do you start your ideation for the concepts?
I just start to design and somewhere along the way I understand what the show should be about. It’s all about energy and the story we’re telling.
What story are you telling this season?
Like you said, we’ve had a lot of attention on the brand and it’s been interesting to see how opinionated people are, especially online. I’ve been thinking about how the internet is the future but online behavior is quite primitive. People act in a very exaggerated way so, I’ve been inspired by both the strong lovers and online haters of the brand. We want to look away from everything people tell us we should be and just focus on our own sh-t. We want to ask: “What is AVAVAV?”
What is AVAVAV?
I don’t know what we are yet but I know that we’re coming much closer to our vision. A lot of people think we’re big but we’re still very small and young. It’s hard as an emerging brand and we can only do so much so, we’ve just been focusing on our design.
How do you feel online critique is effecting the state of fashion today?
The show tried to put the online hate in a physical space and maybe in doing so we can show that it would never actually happen in real life. I wanted it to feel like the medieval times, like a walk of online atonement. We’re showing this online hate but through very IRL aggression. There might be a lot of opinions on it as well but that’s the point.
Despite all of the online noise, what is the best critique you’ve ever heard?
I guess just the love from the community we get and everyone that understands our vision despite errors. We’re getting a lot of doors opened and brands that want to collaborate with us which feels very positive and affirming.
Which pieces are you most excited to show?
I’m very excited about this shoulder-less hoodie that looks like a ghost and I think it’s so much fun as it’s a silhouette I’ve not seen before. We have a lot of beautiful denims, tailored blazers and suits so, the collection feels much richer than it has been in the past. It’s the first collection I’ve ever had that I’ve loved all of the pieces.
