Vetements started in 2014, founded by the Georgian designers Demna and Guram Gvasalia, and the name is simply French for clothes. It began as an anonymous collective, with 18 members by 2015, and its third show, for AW15-16, was held at Le Dépôt, a Paris sex club. The early reputation came from oversized proportions and reconstructed garments, floral prairie dresses with an oversized blazer on the Spring/Summer 2015 catwalk, and a DHL T-shirt and slogan tees that revived logos. You can see that mix in the first group. The pink multilogo T-shirt, the black athletic logo hoodie and the gray neck pillow fitted zip up hoodie are the streetwear side, while the floral blouse and the floral crepe shirt carry the prairie idea. The cotton denim corset and the I Am Naked Under My Clothes bodysuit are the ironic, fitted pieces. For a plain starting point, the Femme fitted tee in white and the halterneck tank are the least noisy. Everyday tops, pants and dresses is a gentler companion read.

Reconstructed denim is one of the label's best-known ideas, and the graffiti tribal O-leg jeans, the blue embroidered logo O-leg jeans and the high-rise flared jeans cover it here. Skirts take a few directions. The Motörhead edition upside-down midi skirt, the printed pleated midi skirt and the camouflage cotton cargo midi skirt are the longer ones, and the tweed mini skirt, the checked wool miniskirt and the black tweed hot shorts are shorter. The black athletic logo cut-up sweatpants and gray graffiti printed sweatpants bring in the hoodie logic, and the khaki merged cargo pants are the most practical piece. What I would skip is wearing the O-leg jeans with a long, oversized hoodie in the same volume, because the cut needs a fitted top to read as a shape. A cargo pants guide is useful if you want to style the khaki pair.

The dresses are a calmer group, and several are about the body. The diva gloves jersey minidress, the twisted lingerie dress in black and the velvet minidress have the most attitude, while the wrap velvet maxi dress and the black ribbed maxi dress run longer. The mixed print midi dress and printed minidress go back to the floral tea dresses the label became known for. The white round shoulder midi dress shares its round shoulder with the white blouse and the tweed jacket. For parties, I would choose one of the velvet pieces and keep everything else plain, so the one with the most texture is the only loud thing.

Demna Gvasalia became creative director at Balenciaga in October 2015 while still at Vetements, left Vetements in 2019, and Guram became creative director in 2021. The label was a 2015 LVMH Prize finalist and pioneered drop-style limited runs, and its SS24 collection used a 16XL concept that scaled hoodies, bombers, suits and jeans up to 16 times its already oversized patterns. The outerwear here carries that thinking: the black reconstructed bomber jacket, the black cut-up workwear jacket, the oversized pinstriped wool coat, the black round shoulder tweed jacket and the red padded flannel overshirt. A leather jacket guide helps when you are choosing between bombers and other cuts. The boots are the loudest part. The Black New Rock edition platform tower boots and fire platform sneakers sit alongside patent leather and velvet over-the-knee boots, the printed over-the-knee pair and the zebra-print leather pumps, and brown heels with a personal point of view shows another way into dramatic shoes. Black logo and white push-up tights and the velvet bodies finish the layering.

Picture her in the black logo hoodie, the O-leg jeans and the platform tower boots, with nothing else needed. Vetements is at its best when one piece is slightly too big or too ironic and everything around it stays calm. For the denim, what shoes to wear with jeans is a good guide to hem length. The same idea works for the dresses: choose one loud element, whether the boots, the coat or the hoodie, and let the rest follow it quietly.

If you want to keep going, Paige Jeans and Dresses and Chorus Dresses and Tops pair well with this edit.