Kanye West stokes controversy in 'White Lives Matter' shirt at Paris Fashion Week

On Monday, the American rapper unexpectedly held a fashion show for his Yeezy brand during Paris Fashion Week, creating (negative) buzz around a T-shirt with the white supremacist message.

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Published on October 6, 2022, at 12:50 pm (Paris)

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Kanye West addressing the audience, in a T-shirt with the provocative message 'White Lives Matter' on October 3, 2022.

Paris Fashion Week has been serving one viral buzz after another. First, the dress spray painted on Bella Hadid at the Coperni fashion show was shared all over social media, and became the most discussed event of the biannual fashion affair. Then, Kanye West arrived. He walked for Balenciaga and was a surprise guest at Matthew M. Williams' Givenchy show, with whom he has collaborated in the past.

The American star's goal was not only to be seen at Paris Fashion Week, but also to have something to show: Around 12:30 am on Monday, October 3, a text message warned a few dozen fashion professionals of a show for his Yeezy brand that day, at 5:45 pm – without regard for the young designers Rokh and Germanier, who had officially booked their show a long time ago and whom West deprived some of their audience. The invitation featured a 3D ultrasound of a human fetus, suggesting a bigger-than-life project was about to be born.

Anna Wintour, ready to leave

The show's location was revealed just a few hours before the event: a former Conforama furniture store on Avenue de la Grande-Armée, just behind Place de l'Etoile. Starting at 5:30 pm, a compact crowd of guests and journalists lined up in front of the entrance. Various rumors circulated: A breakdown of the power generator would prevent the runway show from starting before 8:00 pm, but Anna Wintour would only be available until 6:45 pm, after which she would leave.

The truth, it turns out, lies somewhere in the middle: At 6:00 pm, the audience took to their seats in the circular aisles of the first and second floors of the deserted store, its escalators at a standstill. Mr. West stood in the first-floor atrium, happily chatting with the many designers who came to visit him: Demna from Balenciaga, Riccardo Tisci who just left Burberry, Rick Owens, Stefano Pilati, Jean Touitou from APC and John Galliano from Maison Margiela, accompanied by Ms. Wintour. A rather disjointed video projected onto a huge canvas seemed to sound the beginning of the event: people returned to their seats as Mr. West disappeared. But, at the end of the projection, nothing happened. As the minutes ticked by, some designers leave, and Ms. Wintour looked ready to leave.

Mr. West greeted his guest from the first floor, wearing rhinestone flip-flops and a T-shirt that has since been a point of controversy on social media: on the front, the face of John Paul II and the phrase "Seguiremos tu ejemplo" ('we will follow your example'); on the back, the very controversial remark, "White Lives Matter." As a counterpoint to the Black Lives Matter movement, which protests police brutality against African-Americans in the US, the expression "White Lives Matter" is a slogan that belongs to the American far right, especially to white supremacists close to the Ku Klux Klan.

But when Mr. West addressed his guests, it was not about politics, only about fashion. He justified the audience's wait in a long monologue: "We're late, but fashion takes time and we need that time to bring you the best ideas. What you experience here, you won't experience on Google. We will not be intimidated, nor will we be treated differently than any other fashion show," he said.

A standard collection, with no surprises

Continuing his monologue, he spoke about his career, explaining that in the past he was forced to start a fashion show or to do a concert tour when he was not ready, and that these constraints have damaged him and his work. His collaboration with The Gap, which ended in September 2022, finished because, he said, the fast-fashion brand cheated him by marketing T-shirts that were too expensive. After his speech, he gave way to a choir of children – his own present, but not their mother Kim Kardashian – who sang religious songs.

Yeezy.

"Gloria, gloria, domine deus agnus dei..." Finally, at around 7:30 pm, the runway show choreographed by Vanessa Beecroft began without anyone noticing. Black silhouettes passed discreetly through the dimly lit rows. The models – including designer Matthew M. Williams, supermodel Naomi Campbell, and designer Rick Owens' wife, the French fashion designer Michèle Lamy – looked strange, with their smooth, protruding skulls. The clothes, created in collaboration with designer Shayne Oliver (co-founder of Hood by Hair), were very standard: full-body jumpsuits that veil the face, slightly short bombers, shorts with cargo pockets, tank tops with thin straps, an unstructured down jacket and very large rubber boots. There is little influence from Balenciaga by Demna and Margiela to be found in these stylistic experiments, which do not boast anything visually revolutionary.

Yeezy.

Tensions rose after the fashion show. Backstage, Mr. West was seen with Candace Owens, an anti-abortion political columnist close to Donald Trump, and a member of the pro-gun lobby. He evaded reporters' questions about his shirt ("Why not?") and lashed out at Bernard Arnault, the owner of the LVMH group. Following the outcry that the fashion show, and the T-shirt in particular, caused on social media, the American star brought the issue up again on Instagram on Tuesday, October 4, denigrating the Vogue journalist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson who had criticized him, and accusing the LVMH group of mistreating its designers.

Alexandre Arnault, executive vice president of Tiffany & Co and Bernard Arnault's son, along with Marta Ortega, president of Inditex, both attended the show, proving Mr. West still arouses interest among fashion's elite despite his controversies – though this last bout will likely be one too many.

Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.

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