Will Vetements rename itself VTMNTS?

Will Vetements rename itself VTMNTS? The question has been flustering the fashion world for the past few days. According to independent site The Fashion Law, the ‘street couture’ brand has taken steps to enable itself to use a new name, which is an acronym of its current name, without the vowels.

“Zurich, Switzerland-headquartered Vetements Group AG filed upwards of 25 different trademark applications for registration between April 2020 and February 2021 with intellectual property offices in the U.S., Italy, Singapore, the European Union, and Switzerland, among other places, for VTMNTS for use on everything from garments and accessories, and retail store services to fragrances, eyewear, and jewelry,” said the U.S.-based Fashion Law.

Brothers Demna and Guram Gvasalia founded the brand in 2014 and chose the generic brand name ‘Vetements’ (meaning ‘clothing’ in French), without the circumflex accent that the word is usually spelled with. However, the brand name has turned out to be very difficult to record and protect. This is especially the case in the US, where the country’s Patent and Trademark Office decided not to register ‘Vetements’ as a trademark due to the fact that the name corresponds to a description of the product sold.

This fashionable practice of removing vowels from a label’s name to obtain an original brand name that is not already in use makes it easier to obtain a ‘.com’ domain. As this has become very rare due to the proliferation of domain name registrations and ‘.com’ domains are used globally, they have become highly coveted.

The name change could therefore make sense, The Fashion Law believes, which has indicated that Vetements has so far received the green light from two authoritative bodies in the U.S. to register ‘VTMNTS’ and use this brand name and logo, “on clothing, bags, sunglasses, perfume, and jewellery,” as well as, “in the context of retail services.”

There has so far been no sign of a name change on the part of the brand either on its websites or on its various social media accounts.

The brand did not respond when contacted by FashionNetwork.com. However, the brand did allude to big announcements coming soon in a post on its Instagram account to launch an unusual vegetarian burger menu on April 28.

Such an operation would enable Vetements to give itself a new impetus. The label has lost some of its aura following the departure of its creative soul Demna Gvasalia in 2019. The designer is now focused on Balenciaga, where he has held the role of creative director since October, 2015.

When Vetements arrived on the fashion scene seven years ago, holding fashion shows in the most unexpected places, the brand shook up the status quo. In just a few seasons, the label went from being an underground, anti-conformist brand to a well-known and closely-watched luxury fashion house. Since then, its reworked vintage pieces, oversized-volume clothing, and its hijacking of logos have been taken up by other labels. The brand, a victim of its own success, has thus lost some of its power of attraction.

Will Vetements rename itself VTMNTS?

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