Kanye West showed his latest Yeezy collection in Paris on Monday. It didn’t go over well, because he turned up to the show with right-wing fascist nutjob Candace Owens, and they both wore “White Lives Matter” sweatshirts. Not only that, Kanye put Black models in those same sweatshirts and made them walk his runway. People had a lot to say about Kanye’s immersion into the white supremacist Sunken Place. It was also clear that Kanye is doing this sh-t for attention, like always, because he feeds on the negative reactions he gets when he, say, wears a MAGA hat or a White Lives Matter sweatshirt. He thrives on it because then, like every fragile white person, he gets to play the victim and act like he’s being martyred for his white supremacist ideology.
Vogue contributor and Garbage editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson was at his show and she criticized him afterwards, calling his white supremacist message “incredibly irresponsible and dangerous.” Kanye then posted photos of Karefa-Johnson on his Instagram (which he later deleted) in which he made fun of her appearance, said that “this is not a fashion person” and called her a “droid.” The reaction from the fashion community was swift – Gigi Hadid and other celebrities and models called him out and defended Karefa-Johnson. Gigi wrote a comment on one of his posts:
“You wish u had a percentage of her intellect. You have no idea haha…. If there’s actually a point to any of your s— she might be the only person that could save u. As if the “honor” of being invited to your show should keep someone from giving their opinion ..? Lol. You’re a bully and a joke.”
Hailey Bieber sent support to Gabriella, writing: “My respect for you runs deep my friend! To know is to adore you and to work with you is an honor…the most kind. the most talented. the most fun. the most chic.” Vogue also took issue with Kanye’s harassment of Gabriella, which apparently was the final piece of the puzzle – Vogue’s official condemnation finally convinced Kanye to delete all of his body-shaming harassment. Then he posted an all-caps message about how he and Gabriella apologized to one another (jesus h.) and they’re all good now.
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) October 4, 2022
Gigi Hadid slams Kanye West as she comes to fashion editor Gabriella-Karefa Johnson’s defense:
“You wish u had a percentage of her intellect… You're a bully and a joke.” pic.twitter.com/zIvFr93XAi
— Pop Base (@PopBase) October 4, 2022
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) October 3, 2022
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.
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- Paris, FRANCE – Kanye West sports busted lip and bruises as he arrives to the Givenchy Show duringg Paris Fashion Week – Womenswear Spring/Summer 2023 Pictured: Kanye West BACKGRID USA 3 OCTOBER 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: Dede / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Paris, FRANCE – Kanye West sports busted lip and bruises as he arrives to the Givenchy Show duringg Paris Fashion Week – Womenswear Spring/Summer 2023 Pictured: Kanye West BACKGRID USA 3 OCTOBER 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: Dede / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Paris, FRANCE – Kanye West sports busted lip and bruises as he arrives to the Givenchy Show duringg Paris Fashion Week – Womenswear Spring/Summer 2023 Pictured: Kanye West BACKGRID USA 3 OCTOBER 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: Dede / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Paris, FRANCE – Kanye West sports busted lip and bruises as he arrives to the Givenchy Show duringg Paris Fashion Week – Womenswear Spring/Summer 2023 Pictured: Kanye West BACKGRID USA 3 OCTOBER 2022 BYLINE MUST READ: Dede / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Nothing about or from this man has EVER screamed “fashionable.” I maintain he’s bullied and talked his way into every fashion conversation, and billion dollar companies have fallen for it.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I happen to think that Kanye has gotten to where he is (in fashion) in large part by playing the race card. I generally never use that expression since it’s often used dismissively by racists to shut down genuine discourse on real issues. But in this case, I really believe it. Kanye is a monstrous person who cynically uses race to get what he wants. He’s disgusting.
There is no race card.
Kanye actually used to be fashionable and insanely popular. That’s what he used to break the glass ceiling. It’s quite sad to see him tarnish his legacy that way because he actually was an inspiration, a force and an asset to the black community once. A long time ago.
Precisely. If a sloppy sweatshirt is fashion, then sign me up for Paris. Kanye believed his own press and the yes-men and -women who constantly tell him what a genius he is. He hasn’t been a genius for a long time.
He was never a genius. He wrote words to other people’s music. Something a sixth grader can do. Prince was a genius.
I am not surprised that he attacked Gabriella Johnson, she is after all a black woman who dared to challenge him. Excluding his musty, ashy bestie Owens all he cares about is white acceptance and it has lead to harassing black women. Less we forget the woman he had his employee go and harass in GA during the election.
He is trash, trash, trash.
Sadly, by calling Owens “ashy”….that’s not much better…she’s a beautiful, intelligent woman who happens to not have very good taste in clothing and the company she keeps.
She is NOT beautiful nor is she is intelligent. She strings together some words to SOUND intelligent but she is not. She’s an horrible ASSSHY Nazi apologist with no heart and only dollars signs in her sights. A wicked, wicked woman. Period.
Owens is Ashy. Period.
She’s an idiot who doesn’t understand science or logic. Pond weed is more intelligent than her
It’s always the season for black men to harass and belittle Black women.
The difference here is that there has been some pushback from non-black folks which is something he probably did not think would happen.
All that was missing from his attacks were comments on her hair….
Kanye is a garbage person, period. He uses his race when it fits his needs, but then is Mr “Slavery was a choice” the rest of the time. His naked desperation for white approval is pitiful.
And let’s get into his “fashion” which he has never designed for himself. How many times do we need to see oversized clothes in neutral color ways? Or intentionally ugly shoes? No pun intended, but when will the fashion industry see that the emperor has no clothes? How he has amassed any power in the industry is truly beyond me.
I truly cannot stand him and wish his cries for attention to feed his narcissism were ignored.
+1
+2
And how did he go from George Bush hates Black people to this? Seriously.
Yeah, no, stop. Art (that is made for art’s sake and is not, say, ceremonial), IS MADE TO BE EXPERIENCED, CRITICIZED, AND EVALUATED. You don’t get to call yourself an artist and then think you’re above all criticism. And if you cannot accept any negative criticism, you are too fragile to be an artist. But beyond that, what you’re (Kanye) doing isn’t art, it’s trolling or just gross self-indoctrination, inflaming and empowering those who would gladly expunge you and your half black kids from this planet. It’s not just irresponsible, it’s sick, dangerous, and indefensible. You, Kanye, can no longer be defended. You’re disowned!
So he attacks her personally because of her valid critique of his public message that was clearly intended to evoke a reaction, then claims it all good because she apologized to him in a meeting. Sure, I believe that.
Not to mention that he misspelled her name on his “apology” Gigi Hadid once again corrected him. I don’t think he expected such a strong backlash from the fashion community and I am glad that everybody rushed to Gabriella’s side so quickly and publicly. I doubt it will make Kanye change or learn but at least Gabriella knows people have her back
Kudos to Gigi in this entire thing. She seems like she’s got a good head on her shoulders.
I was horrified that Lauryn Hill’s daughter, Bob Marley’s granddaughter, wore the WLM shirt and later defended it sounding much like KW himself.
I wonder what LH thinks? Nothing would surprise me at this point.
Disgusting ! Those models should have all walked out of the show and left him to model the damn clothes himself !
That is exactly is what I was thinking as well ME and Taehyung’s Noona!! I can’t wrap my head around how a brown/black model could feel comfortable wearing his WLM t-shirts. My only conclusion is that…they must really need the money?
Reading your comment, it just occurred to me that Black children who grew up in extreme privilege may not really identify with the Black experience. In large part, growing up with extreme privilege insulates them from all the friction that being Black, or not wealthy, or anything else causes.
Jaden Smith knew enough to walk out of that show and decry that message. It’s the person. Period.
I don’t think Sue was trying to excuse their behavior but rather to make an observation.
Thank you girl_ninja.
Hi Sue:
I get what you are saying, but I want to add a few things. (1) there isn’t one universal black experience; however, there are, what seems like, some near universal connectors—and even those are shaky; and (2) Kanye’s mom was a college professor, which would likely place them, economically, in the middle class. That’s part of the historical black experience too.
Unfortunately, a part of the black experience also involves internalized racism, the desire for white adjacency and acceptance as a cornerstone for self-acceptance and validation, and then there is clowning, “coonery,” and selling out black people and mimicking oppressive white power systems for self-gain and white acceptance and protection.
You can probably guess where I think people like Kanye and Candace Owens fall.
Why does Anna want to be so associated with Kanye that she glides past all the horribleness? I don’t get it al all. she’s Vogue ffs and she still panders to KW’s bulls-t. With Karl (etc.) there’s real design and fashion knowledge happening. So WTF are the fashion community seeing in him and his “fashion”?
AW should have been ousted years ago. American Vogue hasn’t been good in decades. Her Kanye/Kardashian support was the last straw for me.
@driver8 …It’s still VOGUE though… that’s the thing. It’s still thee Vogue Magazine. Nothing else comes close so Anna is doing something “right”…I’m just disturbed that Anna / the fashion industry can’t or won’t just skate by Kanye’s sh1t and ignore it instead of embiggening him and giving him praise. WHY???
@Sindy
Anna simply doesn’t care, it doesn’t effect her so she turns a blind eye. She know about the racism going on at American Vogue and did nothing, even after it was made public. She also did nothing when Harvey Weinstein was using Vogue and the fashion industry to pick victims, which from the models Anna know about.
I mean, Anna and the fashion community aren’t exactly great either. This is the same industry that seems to regularly use racist gimmicks to get attention and then offer insincere apologies afterward. And let’s not get into Anna’s history of terrible behavior. Kanye fits in perfectly.
What did Gabriella have to apologize for? Kanye not only craves attention but validation from white people.
I doubt very much that any “apology” on her side took place outside of Kanye’s head. There might have been a meeting and dinner, which, since this is coming from Kanye’s Instagram, I’m suspicious of even that, but I’m sure Kanye imagined/misconstrued her “apologizing.”
This. As a typical narcissist, if Kanye apologies, it has to be because they were *both* wrong and *both* have to apologize. He is completely incapable of a real apology, so to cover himself against the backlash he wasn’t expecting, he has to say she also apologized. And as I mentioned below, he didn’t even bother to get her name right in his “apology” so….that lets you know how much to believe him.
Pathological narcissists don’t care if the attention is negative or positive as long as they have it all.
Having known a few toxic narcissists in my time, my sister being one, they will deliberately stir the pot any way they can to get attention, and throw anyone under the bus who DARES to disagree with them. The blow-back is literally frightening.
I seriously doubt she apologized to his terrible ass. I am so sick of Kanye (Slavery Was a Choice). I loathe him. He tried to play spoiler in 2020 just so Trump would win. He’s cool with being racist white people’s mascot and they can have his terrible ass. UGHHHHHH
Someone posted on Twitter that he did not expect all his rich white friends to come to this black woman’s defense. Black people are not a monolith. We can agree to disagree. Kanye saying he thought she was being used by other black people? Mr. “I’m a free thinker”? But the rest of us are not??? He is so full of sh@t and he looks like he hasn’t bathed or brushed his teeth in a month. I doubt she apologized. If anything it was probably a “sorry you took it the wrong way” that is not the same as an apology. Please go away…
This this this. He truly did not expect white people to defend a black woman, because he truly does not believe black women are worth defending.
He didn’t even bother to get her name right in his “apology”
Bingo. This is exactly it. Kanye is so used to sh-tting all over black women, and he is unfortunately so used to society at large backing him up and supporting him on that, that I think he did not expect anyone, but especially Vogue magazine itself, to come to her defense rather than stay silent (and through their silence, covertly support him and his abuse).
I don’t follow fashion very closely so was not aware of who Gabriela is, but have enjoyed watching the fashion world close ranks around her. These obsessive attacks from him would be terrifying.
Pretty low for even Kanya, appalling to stir up lunatics but hey that’s Yezzy. No words for Candace Owens..
He is such an a**hole.
The models in his show could have said “no” and walked away. It would have been the perfect time to stand up to this a$$hole. He would have had NO show without the models. No amount of money or exposer would get me to wear that t-shirt. Sorry.
I don’t know about you but to me Kanye absolutely seems like the sort of person to obsessively stalk an employee that quit because they disagree with his bullshit and actively attempt to completely ruin their career and their lives through whatever means his billions of dollars can buy. Just because they dared say no to HIM.
There are a bunch of people who still feel sympathy for this guy due to his mental health issues.
But The white lives matter shirts? Posing with Candace owens? Targeting a black woman who dared to critique his work? When is his behaviour just going to be seen as too much?
When are we going to cancel this fool? He keeps alienating the Black community then runs back to the Black community for support, throws temper tantrums and urges boycotts of white companies/people when they won’t let him have his way. Then rinse and repeat when he decides it all good again. He should have been cancelled a long time ago. Poor Chrisete Michele’s career never recovered after she got cancelled for her support of Trump. And she has a beautiful voice. He has consistently made his feelings and mindset known re: his affinity towards white supremacy and any Black person who keeps supporting him is just as ridiculous as he is. This isnt mental illness or him being artistic or a genius. Just Kanye being, in the eloquent words of Prez Obama, a jackass!
Kanye really is scraping the bottom of the barrel to get approval and attention. A lot of people noticed he only backed down attacking this woman when prominent white people and finally Vogue itself issued a statement. Her work is stellar and he messed with the wrong one. Can’t imagine this conversation but hopefully she didn’t have to manage big feelings. He recently got out of contracts with the Gap and Adidas but bet those brands are breathing a sigh of relief they are no longer associated with him. He really think showing up with fascist Candace Owens in that disgusting shirt was gonna garner him widespread praise. He’s disgusting, hates Black women and dresses like a bum.
He’s truly mentally ill. Not a genius. Not new. Not innovative. Nothing. He needs help. Now I am done with him.
He is the worst and it’s so obvious him and Candace Owens are doing this crap for attention and relish in it. I know ignoring people isn’t always the answer but the worst think you can do is ignore these Maga idiots. They want to be culture wars victims and feed off of it. This reaction is 100 percent what they wanted.
I’m also rolling my eyes at the editors comments. A stupid shirt isn’t “pure violence” and being in a room with Kanye wearing it isn’t trauma. Stop giving these idiots that power. My neighbors have a f Biden and f you for voting for him flag up. It’s not trauma or violence to see it. It’s annoying and stupid and I’m not giving my neighbor the power to have any control over me. It feels like everyone wants to be a victim these days and victim signal. You’re a successful editor in Paris, dumb Kanye and Candace shouldn’t have that power over you.
I agree with you, Luna. This culture war BS is how we fall into a trap of not doing anything to actually address the problems BLM has sought to bring attention to.
I’m glad she stood up against the tshirts and support her in that/through Kanye’s bullying after she spoke up, but I also cringe at the “pure violence” comment. It undercuts what could have been a powerful argument.
Luna, it’s not your place to say what is traumatizing or not.
If, given your life exeriences this does not fall under the category of trauma then good for you.
Furthermore a BW’s achievements should not be held against her as a way to belittle her feelings. What the hell does it even mean? That given her current “social position” she should not be so easily traumatized??? That’s gaslighting 101.
Why does Kanye hate black people? I just don’t understand? And that Balenciaga plaque on his front teeth–hideous.
@Jferber: because he hates himself.
Finally, something on which he and I agree.
I wish she hadn’t gone to a meeting with him. Just a firm no thank you.
No “Baz Lurman filmed us, so there’s going to be ART about it coming; stay tuned!”
No “we both apologized.”
No standing next to him, no breathing air he exhaled, no sitting at a table with him, his lunacy, and some cheese fries…
None of it. The shirt was trash, but this attempt to flip it and manipulate is just maddening. It’s all madness. No.
The Kanye said they meet doesn’t mean that they did we know how delusional he is.