“it all started in the basement…” that will get you reading on wouldn’t it?
the “legendary hair stylist” story started in the basement, but this started initially as a joke—it’s in ward’s nature to push some buttons and make people laugh. if you follow him on instagram, you get to know his playful side.
“…well, i was working with inez and vinoodh on the boardwalk of venice beach in LA, and… i get half an hour off (while they are editing). so i stepped into one of those souvenir t-shirt shops on the boardwalk, and because vetements had been making such a big hype at the time i thought, ‘oh, this is funny.’ i like making people laugh… i’m on set, fixing the girl’s hair; i’m with my back to everybody that’s behind the camera. and so on my butt, instead of vetements, i printed wardements F/W ‘dadada’ as a joke. one sweater, never thinking of making a brand or anything at all.” because of the tongue-in-cheek name play and story behind it, word got around about this hoodie.
before you know it, they ended up on instagram, sported by the likes of toni garnn and daphne groenveld. ward’s fanbase went into a frenzy, creating their very own campaigns as the brand was developing its own cult following. before you know it, ward’s fans put up a billboard for wardements in tokyo without him even knowing. needless to say, the direct requests kept coming in through Instagram and retailers started making requests. the launch of wardements was nothing but inevitable at that point. t-shirts and hoodies became a canvas for cheeky meme-like statements like the classic “cash me outside”, “i’m your online girlfriend”, and “slide inside”.
considering that ward is one of only a handful of legendary hairstylists of our time, his peripheral exposure to fashion watching john galliano, valentino, and yves saint laurent pin and drape weeks and days before a fashion show, while collaborating with stylists through hair; fashion is second nature. ward’s vision for wardements is to dress “…a person with style as opposed to a person that is dressed up, or styled up. we have bomber jackets, t-shirts, hoodies, slip dresses. It’s stuff that you can wear day and night. it’s not hard to wear. it’s not stiff…” the FW18 collection has expanded to 95 pieces ranging from handbags, leather goods, shoes, coats, dresses suits, and denim, and will be available in 13 stores globally. view all work for wardements.
