Where the money comes from at this point?
Maybe because most of the design team in Zurich is underpaid?
of course It's absolutely common in the fashion world, but the shameful exploitation is real at Vetements.
Here is the latest news story about Guram and the work ethics of the company:
Former employees of Zurich luxury label Vetements report culture of fear
Twenty former employees are making serious allegations against the fashion label.
They report threats, insults, and outbursts from creative director Guram Gvasalia.
Published: October 4, 2025
The Zurich-based luxury label Vetements is facing serious allegations from former employees. 20 former employees of Vetements and its subsidiary VTMNTS have reported to "Spiegel" and Investigativ.ch about a culture of fear, threats, and outbursts by creative director Guram Gvasalia.
A German investigative team spoke with former employees of Vetements and VTMNTS, who described the working conditions under the "dictator."
Newcomers to the fashion brand were given a desk in the office and told to just get started. According to former employees and interns, the first two things they learned were:
Don't look at or talk to Guram Gvasalia. He decides who to talk to and when.
The motto is: eat or die – either you adapt or you have to leave.
Mistakes are unavoidable because you're supposed to just do things, the former employees report. But the mistakes they make are held against them. Guram insulted the interns for the smallest mistakes – using phrases like "you idiot" or "shut up, you're stupid." He is said to have knocked over furniture and wiped neatly arranged prints off the table.
Time pressure was reportedly the order of the day, and they finished work at 10 p.m. at the earliest. This is what former employees report. When contacted by Der Spiegel, Guram did not respond to the allegations.
The Surveillance
Der Spiegel spoke with several of Guram's former employees, all of whom described the same circumstances. They often worked late into the night, and during preparations for fashion shows, even into the early morning hours.
Guram had surveillance cameras installed in the office, which he could access from his cell phone. This allegedly allowed him to monitor who actually worked for how long. Several former employees report that they were summoned to Guram's office for being a few minutes late, and that he reprimanded them.
As legal scholar Roger Rudolph told Der Spiegel, systematic monitoring of employee behavior is illegal. He also stated that installing cameras in an open-plan office is a clear violation of the law.
Riot between the brothers
When the brothers were still working together, Demna commuted between his job at Balenciaga in Paris and Zurich. Guram stayed behind. During this time, he allegedly tried to influence the creative work at Vetements. But the employees didn't take him entirely seriously. He is accused of wanting to design things that would be easier to sell.
When the two brothers were in Zurich, there were reportedly frequent arguments. Demna gave instructions, and Guram would then want something completely different and instruct his employees accordingly. The brothers are said to have regularly clashed.
Faintness attacks at Paris Fashion Week
The situation was said to have been particularly precarious during Paris Fashion Week. For all labels, this meant hundreds of hours of work late into the night to create their collections. At Vetements, however, this situation apparently reached a completely different dimension.
According to a former employee, ten employees were supposed to do the work that would normally require 100 people. There was no time for breaks. The consequences were fainting spells and circulatory collapse. But Guram reportedly demanded that production continue.
A Stepping Stone?
In luxury fashion, there are two seasons: spring and winter. Both seasons are followed by fashion shows and new collections. According to former Vetements employees, people quit or were fired after each season.
In total, the team is said to have always consisted of around 30 people, mostly interns. These were said to be the mainstays of the fashion label, reportedly earning 1,000 francs a month.
The truth, however, is that Vetements used to be a stepping stone into the luxury fashion world for many of the former interns. Without Vetements on their resumes, they wouldn't be where they are today.
watson