Kanye West

I struggle with my opinion of Kanye West. I am a fan of his music, and I can appreciate his vision sometimes. But, when his ego enters the room and sucks the oxygen out, it takes away from him as a person and whatever message he is trying to deliver. He comes off as hysterical, and you struggle to understand that he’s saying. Ironically enough, when you take away all of the noise.. he literally has a point in some of the things that he says. While I don’t always agree with most of the things that he says, I’m surprised that I can actually say that he actually made a valid point in this recent interview.

Earlier today Kanye’s interview with Sway hit the net, but it was only a shortened version of it. I was just like ‘oh boy, here he goes again’ when I listened to a snippet of the interview. Later on, the full interview was available to listen to. Kanye made some valid points. Yes, you did read that correctly, Kanye had a valid point (imo). His delivery is horrible, and once he works on that he will be surprised at how many people will actually agree with what he has to say — sometimes.

I don’t know if  it’s because it is fashion related that I was actually able to understand, but I do. Kanye was saying how he is basically being blackballed. The same people that he was rubbing elbows with don’t want to invite him into their world — the world of fashion that is. To hear Kanye tell it, they took the phrase ‘no new friends’ to a whole other level (lol). Yes, you had a successful sneaker line, BUT this is clothing. He says that he doesn’t think that they’re racist because they like Asians. Kanye feels as though they’re marginalizing him and goes on to say that he made his shoe collection with Nike and the head of the company would not take his calls.

Now.. him telling people to boycott Louis Vuitton just because they will not meet with him is silly. We, John Q & Jane Q Public, are not your minions, and we can not be controlled. I’m sure that you can find a better cause to call your 10 million followers to arms.

When I heard him calling out the names of these designers I was just like ‘oh boy, that’s not smart’; it’s not professional and who are you going to get to work with you now? But then I thought, well he is trying to put it out there to embarrass them, or shame them into working with him — or is that just what I took from that portion of his interview?

I agree with Kanye to an extent. You would think that as an aspiring fashion designer or an established fashion designer that it would be logical to have relationships with certain stylists because well….. you’re creating the clothing and they are looking for clothes to style their client. This sounds like the perfect marriage in a perfect world…..WRONG. In you’re head you’re thinking “it’s a win win because if I design something that can potentially get their client on a best dressed list or a dress that will look nice on their client then why wouldn’t this be the perfect match”? They are actually your biggest hurdles.

You have to go through the stylists, assistants, hairdressers, makeup artists, managers, etc in order to get to that person. But h’m… His struggle is not getting a call from the head of the company. He is upset that Louis Vuitton won’t answer his calls…… but he has $100 million dollars. Many of us would be happy if we could start out with fame and $100 million dollars.. and ‘he mad’ ;).

It’s hard work, and it’s a lot of networking. Imagine studying fashion design, and having a portfolio full of sketches.. and every time you look up, a celebrity who DID NOT go to design school!!!, cannot sketch!!!!, cannot sew!!!!!, and has NO experience or knowledge of fashion (besides opening the boxes of free clothing that companies send them) gets a huge deal with a store to create their own clothing line. You, armed with your college degree in one hand, and your portfolio in another would try to approach a brand to get yourself a deal.. — mind you, you sew, you sketch, you do it all.. Eyes bloodshot from sketching, and fingers swollen from sewing.. They would look at you and be like “Who is you?” and they would offer you an unpaid internship where you are only making copies and getting coffee.. schlepping around, but Kanye wants to talk about who is a slave, and who isn’t -_- .. From where I’m sitting, he’s in the house and we’re in the field.

They are taking jobs away from the aspiring who can’t even go that route if they wanted to. You’re killing out yourself to get a degree, and skills that they told you that you must possess in order to get into the business but in the same breath, they’re giving chances and big money to people that don’t have half of what they’re telling you is required. WE have plenty of reasons to be mad, and frustrated. Kanye is armed with 21 grammys and $100 million dollars….. and he’s mad.

Yes, it’s true, anyone can have a clothing line, but if you want to have a successful clothing line, that is where the hard work begins. Getting an investor, manufacturing deal, etc.

At this point, Kanye’s frustration is because he’s come to the harsh realization that he can’t skip the line. Sorry Mr. West, there is no VIP line. To say that you will be the next Ralph, is absurd. Why not be the best Kanye that you can be?

Kanye has to get ON the line, and in the genre of fashion, it’s not going to be the front of the line. He’s insulted that is what it’s come to, and that’s why he’s mad. His 21 grammys, all of the records that he’s sold, how great he is in his mind…. at the end of the day in the fashion world, it does not matter and he still has to form the line. For once, you can’t state your name and people just fall at your feet.. to get respect you have to earn it…. even in fashion.

So, telling the masses/regular folk to boycott Louis Vuitton is foolish. So now tell me Mr. West, when you get your return phone call, what now, no more beef? Go buy it again? He needs to tell his peers not to buy it. This is not our fight.

— Chances are the clothing that he is trying to create isn’t going to be for ‘US‘ anyway,  if you know what I mean.

My advice to Mr. West (if I may) would be to join the line and wait your turn. You’ll be in great company ;).

xoxoPinkKisses