Nothing beats the shockvertising of ugly fashion brands. A few months ago, we covered some of the year’s greatest fashion shows. But then, one thing that stands out above everything is how they focus on the outrageous, ugly, weird or “shocking”
There you are, scrolling through the fashion shows. You see a $1,850 pair of sneakers that looks like it’s been dragged through a construction site. Or there’s that $1,790 leather “trash bag” that’s literally designed to look like garbage.
If you are thinking, “Who would actually wear this?”, you are not wrong.
And still, you aren’t missing some secret about these ugly fashion trends that these brands seem to revel in.
For instance, when Balenciaga released a $1,790 leather pouch that looked exactly like a trash bag, the internet exploded. Comments ranged from baffled (“They are really trying to make a joke out of the consumers at this point”) to outraged (“Someone at Balenciaga needs to be jailed immediately”). One person summed it up perfectly: “Balenciaga is a social experiment and y’all are losing.”
What most people don’t understand is that what appears “weird and useless” is often a deliberate and sophisticated strategy. These brands practice shockvertising for business and artistic purposes.
Here you’ll learn all you must know about these ugly fashion brands and their obsessions with the strangest fashion shows.
The Method Behind the Madness With Ugly Fashion Brands
Spoiler alert: these fashion brands do not wish to encourage bad fashion or awful fashion trends. So, let’s talk about why some of the world’s most respected fashion houses create clothes that look completely unwearable.
High Fashion Is Wearable Art (Not Everyday Clothes)
For some avant-garde fashion brands, these creations are a form of conceptual art. These fashion shows allow these designers to showcase bold silhouettes, vibrant prints, and unique fabrics that eventually trickle down to fast fashion and street style.
Yes, it isn’t beautiful in the traditional sense. But the runway is their canvas, and clothing is their artwork.
Think about it this way: When you visit an art museum, you don’t expect to take home a Picasso and hang it above your couch. You appreciate it, you’re inspired by it, maybe it changes how you see the world—but it stays in the museum.
Runway fashion works the same way. Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, whose work has been displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, creates fashions that resist definition and can be read as Zen koans or riddles. Her pieces aren’t meant to be your Tuesday work outfit. They’re meant to challenge your perception of what clothing can be.
Similarly, fashion brand Maison Margiela treats fashion as an intellectual exercise. They deconstruct garments, showing their seams and turning clothes inside out to question their very essence.
It’s Marketing Genius, And the Numbers Prove It
Balenciaga’s creative director, Demna, openly stated: “I couldn’t miss an opportunity to make the most expensive trash bag in the world, because who doesn’t love a fashion scandal?”
And that’s about the other essence of why they focus on awful fashion trends. Balenciaga’s crazy fashion is the true brilliance of shockvertising. That $1,800 trash bag generated almost $2 million in media impact value in just one week.
People didn’t like the core product, but extensive discussion drove sales of their other products. Every outraged headline, confused tweet, or viral TikTok review represents millions of dollars in free marketing. It pushed the brand to the forefront of millions of conversations, driving sales of its mainline products, such as regular sneakers and handbags.
Of course, Balenciaga’s weirdest items don’t always create as much. Shockvertising actually walks a fine line. For instance, their 2022 ad campaigns sparked significant backlash and triggered a dramatic decline in sales.
Ugly Fashion Trends Push Boundaries So Wearable Fashion Can Follow
Remember, we said these brands don’t encourage ugly fashion trends. Actually, there’s a fine line there. These runways actually also push trends.
And here’s where things get interesting for actual shoppers: Trends take two to three years to go from the runway to the masses.
So, some of those crazy runway outfits will become wearables in a few years. But this time, when you see them, they will be more adaptable and practical.
A good example is the return of oversized clothing. Initially, runway shows would feature dramatically oversized silhouettes that looked like walking sleeping bags. By the second year, high-end stores would carry that “oversized” clothing but in a more practical form. Another example is how destroyed $1,850 sneakers become distressed $400 sneakers.
And then the third year, fast fashion would offer oversized blazers and relaxed-fit jeans that you actually want to wear. By this time, fast-fashion brands like Zara and H&M have released their versions. The distressed sneaker trend becomes widely available at $80. The concept has completed its journey from unwearable art to wearable fashion.
We need the runway and these crazy fashion shows to move the needle.
If designers only created clothes that were 10% different from last season, fashion would stagnate. They need to go 200% in a direction so that when it trickles down, the 50% version feels fresh and new.
Exclusivity also starts with outlandish products
The craziest fashion show outfits are “halo products” or “show pieces”. These are designed to cast a glow of exclusivity and radical creativity over the entire brand. A Comme des Garçons garment that resembles a crumpled, padded sculpture positions the entire label as avant-garde.
This “halo effect” makes a $600 t-shirt from the same brand seem like a more accessible entry point into that world of exclusive artistry. The unwearable item justifies the price and desire for the wearable one.
5 Ugly Fashion Brands Known for Their Crazy Runway Outfits
Let’s look at the specific brands creating ridiculous clothing and continuously taking over the headlines.
1. Balenciaga
Balenciaga is the king of controversy. Their $1,800 “trash bag” totes, destroyed sneakers priced from $495 to $1,850, and literal duct-taped shoes. They also famously released a $2,145 blue leather bag that looked identical to IKEA’s 99-cent FRAKTA tote.
As already explained, Balenciaga’s dumbest items generate social commentary that they benefit from. And even so, their goal is also mocking fashion consumerism while profiting from it.
The brand asks uncomfortable questions: Why do we value expensive things? What makes something “luxury”? Are we all just buying status symbols?
And yet at the same time, they sell a leather trash bag for $1,790; they’re holding up a mirror to consumer culture. Ironically, whether people buy these crazy Balenciaga items or talk about them, the brand still wins.
Don’t forget the trickle-down. The trash bag that made headlines gave rise to oversized hoodies, logo t-shirts, and Triple S sneakers that have become streetwear staples.
Balenciagas’ $1,800 “trash bag” totes Source: New York Times
2. Vetements
Vetements is known for things like $300 DHL T-shirts (yes, the delivery company logo), jeans with zippers in random places, and intentionally ugly, ill-fitting clothing.
Fashion designer Demna founded the company before moving to Balenciaga. Vetements takes mundane, everyday items and elevates them to “fashion.”
For instance, that DHL uniform shirt became something people wanted and was sold at luxury boutiques.
The brand adds value and desire to clothes that are actually “not fashionable”. And in terms of the trickle-down effect, brands like Vetements drive logo mania, oversized proportions, “normcore” aesthetic, and the elevation of everyday workwear into fashion.
Vetements DHL shirts on the runway. Source:GQ.com
3. Moschino
Moschino also makes the list of our top ugly fashion brands. And they hosted the craziest fashion shows. Think McDonald’s uniforms as evening wear, SpongeBob dresses, handbags shaped like Windex bottles and traffic cones, and fashion that reads as pure camp.
Moschino, especially under former creative director Jeremy Scott, embraces irony, humor, and pop culture references. Their objective is that fashion shouldn’t take itself seriously.
And such a statement is quite radical, since the fashion industry is often criticized for being pretentious.
The brand says: *Fashion can be fun. It can be silly. It can reference Saturday morning cartoons and fast food and still be “high fashion.
In terms of how Moschino influences trends, its pop culture references on clothes have become an intentional style choice. Look closely at the references to maximalist accessories, bold graphics, and the acceptance of “tacky,” and you’ll see how those influences work.
McDonald’s uniforms as evening wear and SpongeBob dresses on the runway. Source:TheCut
4. Comme des Garçons
Comme des Garçons focus on clothes that look like wearable sculptures. These clothes are also crafted from materials as unusual as papier-mâché, insulation, and mattress fabric.
The way the models also wear these ridiculous pieces also makes them seem more like art sculptures than clothing. Critics have called them “expensive trash bags,” while fashion insiders call them conceptual masterpieces.
Designer Rei Kawakubo, who had no formal fashion training, approaches fashion by starting with a single word or abstract image. So, she could present a crumpled piece of paper to her team and request a pattern that expresses similar qualities. Her philosophy is all about “beauty in imperfection”. Her work asks fundamental questions: *What is clothing? What is the body? Where do they meet? What is beauty?*
The Metropolitan Museum of Art held a major Comme des Garçons exhibition examining nine expressions of “in-betweenness”: Absence/Presence, Fashion/Antifashion, Clothes/Not Clothes, among others.
This type of fashion trickles down into everyday life through asymmetry, deconstructed garments, inside-out seams, monochromatic palettes (predominantly black), and gender-neutral silhouettes.
Met museum honours Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo. Source: The Guardian
5. Maison Margiela
Maison Margiela is known for inside-out seams that are intentionally exposed and blank white labels where brand names should be. The brand is also known for other weird outfits, including deconstructed coats that look half-finished, and the Tabi boot, a split-toe shoe inspired by Japanese workers.
This brand isn’t about elevating awful fashion trends. Instead, Maison Margiela questions fashion’s obsession with branding and “perfection.”
By exposing construction methods (inside-out seams), removing traditional branding (blank labels), and leaving garments seemingly unfinished, they ask: *What makes fashion “fashion”? Why do we value hidden construction over visible craft? Why do we need logos to validate our clothes?
Even so, their wacky fashion show outfits still influence everyday wear. Today, we consider quirky outfits with raw hems, exposed seams, deconstructed details, minimalist aesthetics, and, of course, the Tabi boot, which has become surprisingly mainstream.
Tabi Shoes by Maison Margiela Source: Vogue
Wrapping Up
Whenever you scroll past a viral, unwearable fashion item, remember that these seemingly ugly fashion brands aren’t setting awful trends. Instead, they set the boundaries of marketing, art, and the future of fashion all in one bizarre package.
And of course, you should never forget that what appears to be “ugly” or “useless” is, in fact, a deliberate and sophisticated strategy. These pieces serve a powerful dual purpose: they are both wearable art and marketing genius.
The most outlandish outfits are not the destination; they are the starting point for every new trend in your wardrobe.