VETEMENTS GROUP AG

It all started in November 2017 when I received a blunt email saying nothing but “Are you available for an interview?”, I was thrilled. But first, let’s take a step back. A couple of weeks before this I wrote an email to a fashion brand that’s success story I had been following with excitement for the past two years. The brand’s name was VETEMENTS, written in Helvetica Noir with capital letters.

The Company

Vetements (from vêtements, French word for “clothing”) is a luxury fashion label founded in 2014 by fashion designer and his brother Guram who is the CEO of the owner company Vetements Group AG. After its inception in 2014 Vetements quickly found traction inside the industry with Demna’s pragmatic approach to clothing design and the state of luxury fashion today. Blurring the lines of luxury fashion with clothing collaborations such as German logistics company DHL, Vetemens brought anti-fashion to the runways and established its name among the high fashion heavy weights. Vetements’ client base includes over 150 high-end fashion boutiques around the world such as Harrods, Matches, and .

Two weeks after responding to their email I was already on a plane on my way to Zürich where Vetements’ headquarters is located. Having a business related background I was set up to meet their head of business development and their CEO. At the time I was also pursuing my master’s degree in Aalto’s International Design Business Management program which they also found interesting. After discussing my personal and the company’s goals they decided to offer me a seven month internship in Vetements’ commercial team with a possibility to continue as full-time employee. Since I didn’t have prior expertise in the industry I took the offer. I was told to move to Zürich within the next three weeks because fashion week was just about to begin and we had to travel there to present the next fall/winter collection.

Living in Zürich

The company offered to help me finding an accommodation from the notoriously expensive Zürich. Luckily my Swiss relatives helped me to get a good housing deal for the next seven months, so I didn’t have to hunt for cheap apartments which I heard is the hardest part when moving to Switzerland. Registering as city resident was rather easy and dealt with Swiss efficiency. For an EU citizen moving to Switzerland and getting a work permit is easy and didn’t require visa. Although living in one of the worlds’ most expensive countries requires prior planning. Average monthly rent in Zürich could be up to 1000 francs for a room which is about 890 euros and without extra spending food costs were around 700 francs/month. Switzerland has a mandatory health insurance system which costs around 300-400 francs/month. Luckily foreign citizens who are living in Zürich for a limited time can apply for an exemption of the insurance payments which I highly recommend. The internship salary of 1000 francs per month was really small by Swiss standards so the job had to be taken as a career investment. I applied for Aalto internship grant before I left and fortunately I got it.

Tasks

My work in Zürich started three weeks before the Paris fashion week, where many French and international labels show their collections two to four times a year. Vetements was established in Paris and operated from there until early 2017 when they moved the company to Zürich. The main headquarters was divided into three teams: design, commercial, and production & development. Other departments included public relations and financial administration. They were located in Paris and other Zürich location. Most of the employees backgrounds were related to , management, or finance. Usually working hours followed regular office hours except during the fashion week or other busy periods of the year. Those included product launches, collaborations, and sale seasons.

My main tasks revolved around customer relationship management, supply chain management and business development related projects. An important part of Vetements’ retail strategy was to sell only through partner boutiques so following our wholesale logistics was a part of my daily tasks. In CRM functions I focused on our clients inside EU where regulations and sales were more or less straightforward. During the later months I also participated in Middle Eastern and Asian market operations. My team’s long term projects included enterprise resource planning and cross team communication improvement projects.

During the fashion week all three teams travelled to Paris for two weeks and worked together to manage the show, the showroom, and the sales week. Planning and producing the fashion weeks for SS18 and AW19 were definitely the most challenging but also the most rewarding experiences during my time at Vetements. I got to participate in product pricing, merchandising, international client meetings, and showroom sales. Fashion weeks were also the best place for networking and creating future possibilities in luxury fashion industry. If me and my colleagues weren’t dead tired after a long day at the showroom we went to other brands’ parties or explored Paris.

What I learned

The multidisciplinary work environment at Vetements was one of the most important factors that made me excited every morning when arriving at the office. There truly wasn’t a single boring day when a mixture of fashion designers and business people tried to keep the still relatively young fashion brand on top of the wave in an industry known for its cruelty for the brands that are no longer in fashion. My coworkers backgrounds were also diverse. The commercial team was a mixture of French, German, Dutch, and American people, all with different skill sets. Concerning my studies in IDBM I couldn’t picture a better company to work at because I saw them tackling with the same problems in which IDBM gives the tools to solve. Most of the challenges were related to cross team collaborations and iterative design processes. I also felt my capabilities for intercultural negotiations and fast problem solving were strongly enhanced during the internship.

After my internship ended I decided to return to Finland and finish my studies before diving fully into the fashion world. Luxury fashion industry is demanding and many times highly superficial environment where go big or go home -attitude is usually the only way to build a brand, and that’s also where the excitement lies in.