Rapper/Producer/Film-maker Kanye West has added another title to his resume: fashion-designer.
Mr. West debuted his first line of clothing in Paris, France on October 1, 2011 before an audience of a few hundred fashion industry insiders. In attendance were quite a few high-end designers and celebrities who came to show support for Mr. West, who has shown quite an interest in fashion in the past. In fact, during the fallout from the now infamous Taylor Swift incident, Kanye West took an extended sabbatical in Europe, spending time in Milan, London and Paris to study at top fashion houses. Mr. West has also openly acknowledged the role that fashion played as an inspiration for his 2010 album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”. Kanye has even designed a line of sneakers for Louis Vuitton in 2009 and his own signature shoe for Nike in 2007 and 2010.
While many other hip-hop and R&B artists have launched fashion lines, Mr West and his supporters are adamant in their assertion that this is a serious endeavor for the artist: “This is no J-Lo basics line,” said American fashion maven Jeremy Scott. “I adore [Kanye] and I think that he is such a passionate and genuine artist in every sense of the word.” Mr. West himself said backstage that “The biggest hurdle I had to face is the celebrity designer or the hip-hop designer concept”. He went even further at an after-party for his show by grabbing a microphone and letting the audience know of the difficulties he faced in pursuing his dreams with that unique mixture of bravado and humility that Kanye West seems to have patented: “We don’t know what the reviews will be, we don’t know what they will say, but I got a chance to go to Italy and feel those fabrics. I begged Louis Vuitton to let me do more shoes after my shoes sold out in two weeks, and they did not…This is my first collection. Please be easy. Please give me a chance to grow. This is not some celebrity [stuff]. I don’t [deal] with celebrities. I [deal] with the creatives in this room, the amazing people who spend every day of their life trying to make the world a more beautiful place.”
Lofty ideals, and maybe a little arrogant…but most great artists are. Here’s hoping Kanye grows to be what he desires.
Sources:
Style.com
wwd.com
Nike.com