Kanye West has made quite a few interesting choices in his time, on both personal and professional fronts. His Yeezy clothing collaboration with Gap of late is just one of them, and of course, not everyone is seeing his vision. The casualwear line, presented and piled up in huge heavy-duty bags on storeroom floors, has been slammed as not only insulting to the homeless community that the line supposedly pays homage to, but also impractical for a commercial setting. Not one to usually go public with any kind of statements, the rapper has firmly dismissed such criticisms while defending himself as being an “innovator” in this instance.
In an interview with Fox News, Ye was specifically asked about all the Yeezy Gap backlash he was receiving. And true to form, Ye was not apologetic. In fact, it was very much giving “Gap customers, I’ma let you finish, but actually, I’m the greatest designer of all time.” As he put it:
I'm an innovator, and I'm not here to sit up and apologize about my ideas. That's exactly what the media tries to do: make us apologize for any idea that doesn't fall under exactly the way they want us to think.
So, all in all, the Grammy winner is doubling down on his creative process (and apparently isn't sitting up in doing so). But Kanye West also clarified a few of the finer points to set the public straight. For one, Ye explained that the clothes are not being storied in trash bags. Those are actually “large construction bags,” per the rapper. Not that those bags are meant to house clothes either, but his non-trash point is taken.
On the critique that he’s mocking the homeless by channeling them into an aesthetic, Ye claimed that wasn’t the case at all. Evidently, he just wants to make fashion “egalitarian” and unpretentious, and he spoke to his dedication to such efforts, adding:
This is not a joke, this is not a game, this is not just a celebrity collaboration, this is my life. I’m fighting for a position to be able to change clothing and bring the best design to the people.
This marks the latest piece of commentary from Kanye West as he returns to public life following a nearly 5-month hiatus. He has reinstated his Instagram once again, where he noted in a now-deleted post that “children” and the “homeless” were the “biggest inspiration for all design.” The sentiment, though, was an unfortunate reminder to the L.A. Mission that West had yet to fulfill his promise from last November to help the homeless shelter and its inhabitants.
What's more is that the star’s renewed social media use kinda sorta renewed his beef with his ex-wife Kim Kardashian from earlier this year. The two had engaged in a major back-and-forth online concerning everything from their daughter’s TikTok usage to Kardashian’s then-boyfriend Pete Davidson. The latter two have broken up, and when that news went public, Kanye West took to Instagram to roast the SNL alum for it, and Kardashian is reportedly not happy at all about the move. (I’m sure we’ll hear more on that awkward situation when Season 2 of her reality series, The Kardashians, starts streaming for Hulu subscribers on September 22.)
The formerly married couple continue to hash out the particulars of their divorce in tandem of these events, almost two years after Kim Kardashian filed. It’s not looking so swell on that front for Kanye West, either, as he’s lately lost yet another attorney in his case. Not to mention the setback of the judge ruling in Kardashian’s favor to have the divorce trial in December, with or without West’s participation. I wouldn't have predicted "mall store bag display backlash" to be the latest hurdle for the rapper, but here we are.
It doesn’t sound like things are exactly going the entertainer’s way these days. But again, if we take Kanye West’s word for it here, he doesn’t exactly care. And why should he? The Yeezy Gap collection is reportedly sold out in most locations now, regardless of how it looked in stores. For myself, I’ll just say that I’d take an overpriced Yeezy sweatshirt sold out of a contractor bag over Kim Kardashian’s retail swim gloves any day.
