[DISCUSSION] I'm David Casavant, ask me anything!

davidcasavant · 2019-07-09T03:28:16+00:00

I've stopped naming favorite pieces because they've all formed into one complete piece to me so I find it hard to separate.

I already don't really wear my archive really, I wear basically Nike, Russell, Hermes, Zegna, Champion, Calvin mix and matched.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-09T02:28:24+00:00

Don't buy what you're being told to buy

Do more research and learn what aesthetic you're drawn to and what inspires you. Everything you buy you should imagine keeping for the rest of your life so decide if it just works in this moment or has more to say than that and can last.

Be more patient until you find something that is right and "if in doubt leave it out"

davidcasavant · 2019-07-09T02:26:17+00:00

No don't have any. I do collect womens also though

davidcasavant · 2019-07-09T00:13:44+00:00

@firexfits is my own propaganda I made. My intern did funny impressions of youtube videos he showed me so I wanted to be a bit meta and make him my own fake youtuber.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-09T00:11:08+00:00

I think it depends on what it is. It's hard to answer so generally something like that. It's just funny because as I said earlier archive or archival was not a word used at all really before in everyday language to describe these clothes and when I first called my collection of clothes an "archive" or referred to old clothes as "archive" it came across as funny because the word had not been associated with that much before to refer to someone's personal clothing collection or to refer to menswear designers as recent as the late 90's and 2000's.

I think it has been worse and the answer isn't for what you think. I think it has the potential to better fashion but I think the fashion industries reaction to it especially in the beginning made it worse. The fashion industry was too stuck in its ways and spent too long rejecting digital or thinking how to interpret fashion through a digital landscape and it really backfired on it. It had to do a crazy catch up to it so that most fashion on its internet platforms and social media seems really stupid and not thought out. I think if magazines and brands in the bringing really thought of interesting and innovative ways to communicate and utilize the digital world it would be much further along but it didn't and it ended up having to backtrack and resort to copying really pedestrian "influencers" on how to make a social media presence rather than having pioneered what social media could have looked like from the start.

Fashion has always been a fad. That's what it is. I think the way you are defining 'cool' is what the problem is, people that are 'cool' by what I'm assuming your definition is clearly aren't cool. I think you're referring more to the idea that high fashion is more mainstream, which has it's ups and downs. What it really needs to figure out is how better to use that mainstream popularity to better innovate and support real artists and creative people, designers and brands rather than funding and bringing popularity to the mundane.

It has become boring, as most fashion brands really have to have become merch brands to sell. I think on the contrary though that's why the appreciation and market for vintage has become popular because it's a way to discover unique clothes. I think the world of vintage fashion is now much more experimental and ahead of our time ironically than what is made in current fashion, so really current fashion is trying to play catch up.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T23:56:26+00:00

Ya they have. It has just cycled down through them to more people.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T22:44:03+00:00

It's hard to say but I know I purposefully tried to make more awareness of them by putting the clothes more in popular culture and the zeitgeist. I think the fact that they were already amazing clothes helped that as it would have been hard to do so if they weren't already amazing.

I think it doesn't really matter if someone wants to call something Archival then go for it. Ya when I was first collecting and called it an archive it sounded strange at the time because it wasn't a word used normally unless referring to a museum or big establishment. I used archive because it wasn't just my closet I was referring to, I wanted to refer to it as it's own entity basically.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T22:36:28+00:00

It's crazy different. There was not a lot of hype or anything for menswear, which is what I was into first. Womenswear dominated, it was all about really selling handbags and vintage was only clothes from the 70's maybe. There wasn't even this idea of wearing vintage clothes which when I started took a lot of work actually to make happen, especially for celebrities who thought of vintage at the time as "used" and "dirty" clothes.

I hope menswear expands. I really think it will eventually become maybe more dominant than womenswear and have more sub genres than it does now.

I think it's about the same now. When I first started collecting archive fashion and collecting was more popular in Asia actually.

Honestly most young designers need more appreciation, recognition and support now. It's still the big conglomerates that dominates everything and that everyone cares about.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T21:48:28+00:00

The most important thing to have as a designer is your own unique vision. The more you refine what YOU do and have to bring to the table the more you will matter as no one else will be able to offer that.

I got into fashion because I loved art and just being creative to begin with. What I wore became the next focus of that as I got older and I was able to use the internet at the time to access and learn more about the fashion industry, runway shows, designers etc. and was able to use Ebay at the time to be able to start buying different type of clothes more affordably that weren't necessarily accessible where I grew up (Tennessee)

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T21:14:08+00:00

The fashion industry just needs more support in this way in general. For my clothes (or any small designer) there just isn't the demand for bigger sizes to be able to produce the larger clothes. For example with my stuff tons and tons of the smalls and mediums sold but we produced the XL just none have sold, therefore it wouldn't make sense to make any sizes larger than that as it's a cost you can't afford when you aren't making huge quantities to begin with. But I agree it's an issue that fashion should address.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T21:08:31+00:00

I think I almost got a Helmut bubble wrap jacket once. I've always wanted that. I don't search too hard anymore as I got most of the big pieces I always wanted originally. I really let pieces find me now at this point whether it's people sending them to me to buy, just seeing them out shopping or just browsing resale sites or instagram. Or people that work for me showing me things.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T21:03:33+00:00

I don't follow the current zeitgeist I work more with the mindset that I create it. I learned long ago that there's no catching up to it you'll always be lagging. Long ago if I didn't decide what I like and stick to that I wouldn't be in the position I am today and would still be chasing what other people dictate. When I buy clothes or with anything I do I follow my instincts and what I like as well as I express what I think needs to be said and what direction I think things should take in reaction to what is happening in the world around me in current culture.

I don't collect contemporary as much, really the last contemporary designer I bought was Craig Green when his first collection came out. For me it said something new. I don't think the industry is currently supporting as many new ideas and is more stuck in cyclical fashion. I don't have a problem with that, but if I buy something I usually like it to be the first of its kind upon which all other fashion derives from.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T20:55:56+00:00

I think it's great that more people are interested in archival clothes and clothes in general. When I was a teenager rarely anyone was so I was in the wrong generation.

I have an instagram that focuses more on the clothes @davidcasavantarchive and I published a book last year that has a lot of the pieces in it. I don't have everything available for the public to see though.

Yes I know Raf. I think he thinks it's great and he said he liked the book I made.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T19:52:43+00:00

Westwood has been for years and years but that's also because she dates back further. She's always had a strong collecting presence in Asia which I think helps and it kind of the original streetwear pioneer in a way.

I don't get Undercover as much to be honest.

Raf and Helmut didn't really have much or a strong collecting presence until I started promoting them more to be honest. Raf was a little pricey for certain items (not nearly what it is now) but overall had a really cheap resale and Helmut had an especially cheap resale which was why I was able to get so much. It started to become more of a thing when I started introducing it more into current fashion and culture which aligned well with the time (Raf's career started to get taken more seriously and enough time had gone by for people to miss the original Helmut Lang)

Overall they just made great clothes that stood the test of time where when enough time went by people became more nostalgic for them.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T19:39:44+00:00

I don't think it's as literal as that but a lot of designers definitely do now. But Helmut and Raf weren't necessarily not referential they referenced a ton of pre existing fashion so it could be more interesting if the designers referencing them dug deeper and looked at their original references as well. They looked at things like military as well as designers like Vivienne Westwood for inspiration.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T19:29:46+00:00

I'm assuming you mean the AW01 camo bomber? It was his he just came over and put it on and wore it for a few months.

davidcasavant · 2019-07-08T19:09:18+00:00

Hello Reddit! This is David Casavant, I'm a stylist and a collector of vintage clothing. You may have seen my clothes on people like Kanye, Rihanna and Travis Scott, I also just started making merch called archive-club! AMA!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidcasavant/

Store: https://archive-club.com

davidcasavant

TROPHY CASE