Kanye West Debut's First Collection with Poor Review

Is there Room in the Fashion Industry for Kanye's Ego?

Paris Fashion Week was all-a-buzz, waiting to see the debut of Kanye West’s first-ever collection for Spring/Summer 2012. Known for his groundbreaking musical genius, notoriously opinionated personality and grossly over-sized ego, his talent for design has yet to be determined.  

Many might not realize that this achievement for West has been years in the making: West completed an internship at both Fendi and Louis Vuitton, and conveyed eagerness to intern with Karl Lagerfeld. He referred to the late and great designer Alexander McQueen as an icon, and sought out a mentorship from Louise Wilson, one of the leading professors at the English design school Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

So what did his years of preparation produce? What did the critics decide upon the unveiling of West’s collection? 

The line included leather, fur, beading and plenty of skin to say the least. The silhouettes did little for the figures of the “ideal” shaped models that wore them. Suede and leather high-performance clothing boasted zippers in excels-is. Weighting down the jackets and tops, were beading, crystals, and appliqué. 

Style columnist Christina Binkley of the Wall Street Journal wrote that the show was at time “painful,” and recalled the Flinstones when referencing one particular breastplate. And though she “liked the perforated black leather” seen on several garments, she didn’t love the way it was used. “A vast quantity of luxury materials can’t blind people to a lack of creative marksmanship,” she wrote. A “very large and furry fur backpack” seemed unseasonably strange for a spring/summer collection. 

I hope he won’t show another collection, say Malcolm Harris at The Huffington Post, “until it is at the level of [his] musical masterpieces College Drop Out, Late Registration or My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.”

During an after-party at Club Silencio in Paris, West begged critics to give him a chance. “We don’t know what the reviews will be, we don’t know what they will say, bit I got a chance to go to Italy and feel those fabrics,” he said. “And I took out motherf—-ing loans to get the best models, to get the best designers, to get the best venue. I gave you everything that I had.”