Vintage Kitsch Couture: Kanye West Fashion Show Offers Swift Justice

Friday, October 7, 2011

Kanye West Fashion Show Offers Swift Justice

Just a little over two years ago, Taylor Swift stood onstage, next to Kanye West, as she was humiliated in front of a live audience. This time, Kanye humiliated himself.

Kanye chose to make his debut as a fashion designer in one of the world’s fashion capitals, at the year’s biggest fashion event. If you want to make a spectacle of yourself, that’s a hell of a way to do it.

At the show, he offered nothing new or spectacular, though nothing terribly awful either. In fact, the consensus seems to be that the collection itself was just generally boring and ill-fitting.

Some of the pieces presented in the “ready-to-wear” collection weren’t anything that anyone could wear anywhere. Though it did appear to me that had there been time for a fitting, and time to attach zippers and buttons, and time to patch the gaping holes in the dresses, the line may not have been so bad and would have actually been “wearable.”

So why is everyone making such a big fuss? Because it’s Kanye, ever-so-famous for dishing it out. But go figure, when the tables are turned, he’s not so good at taking it.

The show, according to Kanye:

“This is my first collection. Please be easy. Please give me a chance to grow. This is not some celebrity s---. I don’t f--- with celebrities. I f--- 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."

“The amount of people that tried to get me a celebrity f---ing deal. They said, ‘You need to do boot-cut jeans, or you won’t sell.’ Shut the f--- up ! Or Hedi Slimane in the motherf---ing Mercer, sitting with me, saying, ‘Stop giving them your ideas, Kanye. Do your own thing.’ Hedi Slimane! To feel so frustrated. And I thank anybody who came to this party, everybody who supported, everybody who believed, because people thought it was a joke, and maybe people still do, but I can only grow from this point."

Kanye stated in a 2010 tweet, “I've finally realized as long as you use profanity when you talk about art and fashion it's better accepted!!!”

There is a difference between using profanity while talking “about art and fashion” and using profanity while talking TO the people who will ultimately decide your fate in the field. I went to art school myself, one of the first things that you learn as an artist is how to take criticism, because you are going to hear it your whole life. You take criticism and use it in order to grow as an artist.

During his rant he also tries to downplay the celebrity status, yet it’s the only reason I can imagine he was able to get a debut fashion show in Paris at Fashion Week. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Yet, on the wings of all this, in an article by The New Yorker, Taylor Swift is quoted as saying that she and Kanye give each other high-fives when they see each other now. Isn’t this a coincidental twist of Kanye karma?

The best that Kanye could do, in my opinion, instead of lashing out at everyone else, is take a long hard look at his line and decide if it truly is something he really wants to pursue. If so, bite your tongue, come back next year and show them.

Fill in the blank:

At the after party, the ________________________ grabbed the microphone and launched into a tirade of profanity and anger directed at his critics.

A. tactful “fashion designer”
B. cocky rap artist
C. sheep

I rest my case.

Article first published as Kanye West Fashion Show Offers Swift Justice on Technorati.

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