Kanye West: Not Just A Wannabe

Article written by: SoJones Asmara
Posted on: April 20, 2009

The celebrity clothing line phenomenon have actually swarmed within the urban community since the 1980’s. Some took off phenomenally such as Run DMC’s legendary Adidas deal, while most could not stand the test of time. However, there is one name from hip hop we often hear linked to fashion in the past year, and the icon’s name is Kanye West. The Atlanta-born rapper has slowly but surely clawed his way into the fashion scene, and reached out not only to the urban community, but also the international fashion world. In an interview with Flare’s Tim Blanks, Kanye revealed his love for fashion.

“Nobody -not even girls- loved clothes as much as me. And even now, the girls I go out with, I take them to Pierre Hardy store and say, ‘Why don’t you wear these instead of Vans?’”.

Kanye started his high kick into fashion when he announced the birth of Past Tell (formerly called “Pastelle”) in 2006. However due to the fact that Kanye has not found adequate partners, the launch kept being postponed. On May 7, 2008, Kanye West went down under and it was informed that Australian label “Ksubi” will be one of Past Tell’s partner in creating an eyewear line. Unlike some other rap stars who are happy enough to put their names on a brand, Kanye opted to be as involved as possible in any fashion project that comes his way. Kanye takes his time in preparing Past Tell carefully, as he wants to ensure a perfect delivery of Past Tell products.

While setting up rather solid grounds for his own clothing line, Kanye West made an announcement in 2008 that he would go for an internship if Louis Vuitton would have him. The result came at the end of 2008, when he launched the Kanye West LV Sneakers to raving reviews. Within 2008, the buzz of his collaboration with Nike had been going strong, and finally fans were satisfied with the launch of the Nike Air Yeezys sneaker on April 4th, 2009. Two more colorways of the highly-anticipated sneakers are to be launched this summer.

Kanye dedicates the first and second quarters of 2009 as his fashion period. As he stated to Flare back in February, “My whole schedule is open to work on clothes for the next five months. I’m not even going to tour until the summer because I said, ‘This is what I wanna do right now with my life.’” As for his collaboration with Louis Vuitton, Kanye was inspirational, telling his fans that it’s perfectly fine to be a perfectionist, as chances don’t come twice.

“It’s the same way I treat being an artist. Every time I perform, every video, every interview, I completely respect that so many people don’t have that opportunity. I’m representing all those kids from art school who will never get to design for Louis Vuitton. It’s my responsibility to do their mentality proud.”