I deserve some kind of award for getting all the way through Kanye West’s Vanity Fair interview. Seriously, you can read the full piece here, but I don’t recommend it. I read it so you don’t have to. Vanity Fair sat down with Kanye to discuss The Yeezy Collection Season 2 (which was poorly received), and Kanye did spend most of the interview chatting about clothes and all of that, very little of which was particularly noteworthy. Nothing in this piece is really Classic Kanye Rant ™ style, but there are some moments of Classic Yeezington. Some highlights:
Priorities: “It’s family first. And then when I work on music, I’ll sequester myself and work on it with a team of three, four, or five really focused experts for two weeks at a time. And then with apparel, the office is right across from my house, so I go to the office every day.
The most beautiful version: “I think people just wear yoga pants and sweatshirts, and I wanted to make the most beautiful version of that possible.”
How the fashion world sees him: “I think the entire fashion world at a certain point sort of looks at me and looks at my family as a child of theirs. Maybe not someone that completely grew up with them, but like an adopted child that came in, like a 17-year-old adoptee, you know? But still nonetheless like an adopted child. And I think it’s just interesting for them to see growth, and they can completely tell the difference in the way things were presented in the very first Paris collections to what we’re saying now.”
Design, Kanye 2020 & Ben Carson: “I think that the world can be helped through design. Because we don’t just sit up there and read the f–king [look] board. We look at it and we ask hours and hours and hours of questions, and the better people that you have in the room and the more information you have, the better opportunity you have of making a great decision and of creating a great proposal that people will connect to. I want everyone to win. When I run for president, I’d prefer not to run against someone. I would be like “I want to work with you.” As soon as I heard [Ben] Carson speak, I tried for three weeks to get on the phone with him. I was like this is the most brilliant guy. And I think all the people running right now have something that each of the others needs. But the idea of this separation and this gladiator battle takes away from the main focus that the world needs help and the world needs all the people in a position of power or influence to come together.
No, seriously, he’s truly considering the presidential run: “Oh, definitely. Especially from the six years of this misconception or the six years I went through of “We don’t like Kanye.” And then as soon as I said that, it was like, “Wait a second, we would really be into that, because actually if you think about it, he’s extremely thoughtful. Every time he’s ever gotten in trouble, he was really jumping in front of a bullet for someone else. He’s probably the most honest celebrity that we have.” I didn’t approach that because I thought it would be fun. It wasn’t like, Oh, let’s go rent some jet skis in Hawaii. No, the exact opposite. I sit in clubs and I’m like, Wow, I’ve got five years before I go and run for office and I’ve got a lot of research to do, I’ve got a lot of growing up to do. My dad has two masters degrees. My mom has a PhD, she used to work at Operation PUSH. Somehow the more and more creative I get, the closer and closer I get to who I was as a child. When I was a child, I was holding my mom’s hand at Operation PUSH. I think it’s time. Rap is great. It’s fun. It’s fun to be a rock star, and I’ll never not be one I guess, but there’ll be a point where I become my mother’s child. With all the things I’ve done that people would consider to be accomplishments, what’s the point where I become the person that Donda and Raymond West raised? My parents’ child.
He loves sweatshirts: “I was so happy to just show so many sweatshirts. It’s as simple as that. I think sweatshirts are the way of the future. And we worked so hard on our development of our actual sweatshirts to make them fall a certain way, the dyeing that we do, the type of washing where we take a thicker Japanese stretch French terry and wash it down to where it keeps its original qualities but then feels so thin. . . . Sweatshirts are f–king important. That might sound like the funniest quote ever. How can you say all this stuff about running for president in 2020 and then say sweatshirts are important? But they are. Just mark my words. Mark my words like Mark Twain.
He apologizes to the other NYFW designers: “I totally apologize to any of those designers and anyone that wanted that slot. I would love to send them some flowers or maybe wear a sweatshirt if that could help to make up for it. A lot of times I feel like Will Ferrell in the movie Elf. You know this big guy that wants to [join in] and his hands are a little bit too big. . . . I could just say please forgive me if I ever step on any toes, because there’s nothing that I would ever want to do or say that would take away from any designer, that would take away from anyone’s work or what they’re working so hard on.”
[From Vanity Fair]
I wish I could fit more of Kanye’s words in this post. He talks a lot about the genius of The Gap, and his admiration for so many designers. Kanye considers so many of those men his peers and inspirations, and I do wonder what they think of him. Anyway, just let the Yeezy wash over you. Sweatshirts are important. Ben Carson is a genius who would not take Kanye’s calls. When he runs for president, no one can run against him. Bless.
