There’s an argument that can be made wherein eBay and other resale sites show us the accurate market value of commodity products such as high end fashion and limited edition trainers. Some of the Yeezy shoes regularly sell for between $1,000 and $2,000. Kids complain that the price is too high, not that the system is fucked and we’re living in a society where consumption at all costs drives everything. The real value of things is often skewed toward financial gain and unfortunately trainers, and fashion, particularly suffer from this commoditisation.
Following the success of the Yeezy adidas launch Kanye told Adidas representatives “you’re welcome” after it transpired that he fronted most of the money for the collection. Generally when brands collaborate they pay for the credibility of the name they collaborate with whether it’s a brand or a person, so in this instance it begs the question who is the brand, who’s paying for whose name.
It feels like the deal with adidas is vindication for his years toiling away and one would hope barriers have come down. Okay, maybe he doesn’t toil, not in a literal sense, but glass ceilings aside I think that this will create a generation of young people for whom type casting and labels are abhorrent. We are witnessing the walls being broken down for them by Kanye. Young guys like Luka Sabbat and Lil Yachty are doing a mixture of things, not having one profession is going to be the new normal. You can say what you like about Kanye’s taste but he’s definitely got an aesthetic and a commercial track record to go with it. Society doesn’t often let people out of their box or to take their label off so why not do music and be a hotelier.
The non-musical guys he’s brought through are Don C and Virgil Abloh. It must be frustrating to see your mate Virgil make Off-White with relative ease and you’re told that you have to stay in your nice rapper box. These three guys are creating the shift in the way that young kids are perceiving and being perceived: they’re still about getting the money to buy pills and weed and fags and booze but they’re doing it on their terms, selling trainers and Supreme online, they want to be creative directors of their own brands and not just millionaires.
Kanye West is what a real rockstar looks like in 2017. Interestingly though was his multimedia album screening fashion show which had what seemed like hundreds of models in Madison Square Garden for Yeezy Season 2. It blurred the lines conceptually of what a fashion show is meant to be. Say what you will but it was a lot more interesting than a lot of men’s fashion shows at any fashion week. There he goes again: pissing people off by pushing boundaries and not being modest. What you gonna do about it? Cry?