Kanye West Steals The Spotlight Again – Disrupting The NYFW Schedule With His Surprise Show
Kanye has a habit of doing what he wants. [Photo: Rex]
Kanye West has thrown a big Yeezy-shaped spanner in the New York Fashion Week line-up.
The rapper/designer who’s used to getting his own way (need we mention the Taylor Swift VMA drama?) has decided, at the very last minute, that he does want to show his brand’s Season 2 collection.
By squeezing himself into the already packed line-up, he’s p***ed off a fair few designers scheduled to show at the same time as him. The Fashion Week schedule is very carefully put together so that every designer has a fair shot at attracting the right buyers, journalists and famous faces – and West has used his celebrity status to wade in and take over.
Chances are, West doesn’t care that he’s put other designers out by announcing his show so late - or he wouldn’t have done it. [Photo: Giphy]
The designers showing at the same time as the rapper aren’t stupid; they know that the crème de la crème of the fashion world are more likely to prioritse West’s celeb-packed show over theirs, leaving them scrambling to reschedule.
One of the designers slated to appear at noon on September 16 – the same time as West – is Anne Bowen, who’s called out the rapper for his last minute decision.
“We have been prepping for a year for this at considerable financial, labour- and commitment-cost to our company,” Bowen explained to Women’s Wear Daily.
“Our show date has been scheduled for months and has been on the Fashion Calendar for weeks. We went through all the proper channels to make this a reality. And just yesterday we learned that Kanye West is having a show at the same time on the same date as ours.”
West announced he was showing at the Givenchy show. [Photo: Rex]
Bowen’s labelled West “unethical” for using his celebrity status to get him a spot in the coveted Fashion Week schedule. “Kanye knows he is a media sensation and it is just not ethical to do this,” she said.
“It’s like we are David and he is Goliath. We have put our heart and soul into our show, and should not be stepped on like this. In order for our show to have any significance, we now have to move our date and time which is a logistical nightmare.”
Bowen’s right; every time West holds a fashion show it’s a star-studded event, attended by all the top fashion journalists, buyers and celebs. In February, Beyonce and Jay-Z graced West’s Yeezy x Adidas FROW with their presence, as did Kim Kardashian and Anna Wintour.
Even Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, renowned for their impact on the fashion world, made an appearance at the dad-of-one’s eponymous womenswear show in Paris in 2011.
Earlier this year, Beyonce, Jay Z, P Diddy, Kim Kardashian, Anna Wintour and Hailey Baldwin all attended his fashion show. [Photo: Rex]
West has even pulled models from Bowen’s show. “They were here at a testing, then we called to confirm them and we heard that they were being pulled,” she said.
“The call time for hair and makeup was going to be the same time as ours. There was just so much wasted time and energy.”
Bowen isn’t the only designer affected by West’s surprise show – Naeem Khan will also have to present his new season collection at the same time as West and will no doubt suffer from the same issues as Bowen.
“Most of the designers work though the CFDA for this very reason—to make sure that they don’t step on each other and that there aren’t any conflicts,” Bowen’s publicist, Lisa Monteleone, told The Daily Beast. “But he elected to just announce and not work through the CFDA, so there wasn’t anything they could do.”
However, despite all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding West’s various shows, he’s yet to wow the fashion world with his designs.
His collaboration with French label APC was slammed as “the new boring” by The Guardian and The Telegraph told him to “stick to the day job” after reviewing his first women’s collection at Paris Fashion Week in 2011.
Somehow, we doubt that will stop him acting the way he does though.
Do you think Kanye’s out of order? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.
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