During the GRAMMYs, West performed in his collaborative sneakers, pairing them with a burgundy velour sweat suit from designer Haider Ackermann, which people originally suspected to be part of his adidas collaboration. A few days later, a representative from adidas confirmed that I would have the opportunity to attend the Kanye West x adidas presentation. This is what it was like to see "Yeezy Season 1" in person.
'Ye day came, and my co-workers and I decided not to wear our invite jackets to the show. I did, however, bring the empty plastic packaging that had my seat number on it. Bringing your physical invite to a fashion show is never a bad idea, especially if you're seated. When we arrived, that proved to be a good decision, because the front door was a total mob scene.
I sat down and got situated, and then the room went dark. Then West's voice came over the speakers, kicking off the presentation with a monologue, the transcript of which was posted by GQ. In a nutshell, West talks about his innate need to create for creation's sake, and that despite some very vocal critics, he wants "people to feel like awesome is possible!" Right after the word of Yeezus, the lights went up and the presentation began.
West's clothing tends to emulate his personal style. I don't think of it really as him trying to compete with the stuff he actually wears—which right now is a buttload of Haider Ackermann—but instead of trying to get the average person to drop $12,000 on a raccoon fur-lined hoodie, he's really using this platform to push guys out of their sartorial comfort zones. He uses himself as a reference point for stepping up your taste level.
Much like his A.P.C. collaboration, where the jeans were actually based on an old Dior Homme cut and a fur-lined military jacket recalled an Ermanno Scervino parka West often wore, the adidas collection both samples and pays homage to some of West's favorite designers. It isn't directly copying—like when West makes a beat, he takes something familiar and tweaks it enough so that it has his own unique signature on it.
Hence, dropped shoulder hoodies and slim pants made to stack easily over high top sneakers. It's a luxurious kind of utilitarianism. Bomber jackets, half-zip anoraks, and frayed workwear-inspired coats were reminiscent of the work of Jerry Lorenzo, the West-affiliated designer behind Fear of God LA, who is rumored to have also worked on the line.
As the horns blared on during the first half of the presentation, a baby crying could definitely be heard. It turned out the baby was North West, who was tired or possibly had run out of juice to drink. Kim Kardashian had to get up from her seat next to Anna Wintour (!) and handed off the crying child to someone who took little Nori backstage, her wailing growing softer in the distance until it melded back into the music.
I recognized Sabbat and Connor off the bat. Connor was clad in an oversized gray sweater with stacked knit sweat pants and West's iteration of a duck boot. Sabbat's look consisted of an aggressively scoop-necked waffle tank layered under a camouflage jacket reminiscent of a pared-down M-65. His pants were hiked up to his knees to show off the knit Yeezy Boost low-top sneakers he was wearing. What I could see from my seat definitely wasn't as good as the livestream, which you can watch below.
As the song ended, West came out and took a customary bow, as most designers do at the end of their show. However, the models stood in their spots in the venue for a little bit, and attendees got to get up close and personal with the clothing and footwear. The new low-top sneakers look especially cool, but the main difference between seeing clothes online and in real life is that with the latter, you can make a better judgement about the cut, construction, quality, and overall aesthetic. Fashion shows are all about mood and evoking emotion. In the wake of the Kanye West x adidas presentation, I definitely felt a sense of catharsis in the air.
It's why he's managed to befriend fashion heavyweights like Anna Wintour, Giuseppe Zanotti, and Milk Studios founder Mazdack Rassi. Creating anything requires a lot of energy, let alone putting hours, days, and months into something you're truly passionate about, be it an album or a clothing collection.
West's passion has always been the thing that shines through in his work, you can feel the genuine desire for him to be as authentic to his initial vision, but also to really make people's lives a little better by looking at their style and lives through a more discerning lens. That's something you can't knock.
source: complex.com BY JIAN DELEON