Kanye West Called Out By Photographer For Copying Homeless Teen’s Jacket
Kanye West has caused controversy with this graffiti denim jacket design [Photo: Getty]
Kanye West has has come under fire for a $400 jacket design sold at his The Life of Pablo pop-up in New York City earlier this month.
Multimedia artist and photographer Jim Goldberg has called out West for appropriating the design from a denim jacket worn by homeless teen Tweeky Dave.
Tweeky Dave passed away in the 90s and was a well known runaway in L.A. Goldberg famously photographed the Tweeky Dave jacket he accuses West of copying for his 1995 book Raised by Wolves. He now owns the piece as the pair were close friends.
West was spotted wearing a replica of Dave’s jacket by Australian designer Pauly Bonomelli in February for his Zine-les Zine party in L.A.
After seeing him wearing it, Goldberg took to Instagram with a photo of him wearing the original, facing his photo of it. Making his feelings clear he captioned it: “Yeezy season 3 - I don’t wear replicas.”
“I don’t wear replicas” says Jim Goldberg [Photo: goldbergjim/Instagram]
Fast-forward to March and similar-looking Levi denim jackets featuring a print of a Life Of Pablo set list scribbled on by West’s friends and family adorned the rack at his pop-up shop. They’re now selling on eBay for as much as $1,950.
And so Goldberg’s grievances continue, as in the latest iD Magazine, he spoke out about why he’s disappointed with West for not crediting the jacket’s inspiration.
“For the jacket to become sold as fashion — it really put me over the edge,” said Goldberg. "The spirit and intention of Kanye could be right, but the manner in which he is presenting it is wrong. All meaning has been lost. [He’s] forgetting history — not acknowledging where that design came from is wrong.”
While it’s not rare for credit to inspirations to get lost by the time a design goes into production, on this occasion, Goldberg feels rectifying the matter could be used to help those in similar situations to Tweeky Dave.
“Ultimately all I would want from them is acknowledgement of Dave, and maybe they give something to homeless kids,” he told iD, who also state that the photographer is planning on taking legal action.
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