Only last month, Kanye West was blasting Balenciaga alongside GAP as he severed ties with all fashion houses to go solo with his Yeezy designs. However, now Kanye has chosen to walk for Balenciaga as a male model in their Paris Fashion Week show.
This appearance has surprised many who took Kanye’s word when he insisted that he was done with Balenciaga, Gap and Adidas and loathed them. This appearance has also surprised fans because, only last week, Kanye was spotted in videos working on music with English singer James Blake.
The main thing people took away from Kanye’s recent social media rants and his impromptu appearance on Good Morning America is that he was taking a hiatus from fashion to work on music and co-parenting. However, it looks like Kanye is still inside the fashion houses.
Kanye’s surprise runway debut saw him flaunting a boxy black jacket and trouser combo. The jacket was bulky and featured several zippered pouches with a bold tag reading, ‘SECURITY’.
Balenciaga’s entire show had a dystopian theme, with the runway representing a muddy post-war battlefield of shallow puddles. In a statement, the company’s creative director claimed he’s “decided to no longer explain [his] collections and verbalize [his] designs, but to express a state of mind”.
Further commenting on the showcase and his latest designs, Balenciaga’s creative director, Georgian designer Demna Gvasalia, stated, “Fashion is a visual art and all we need is for it to be seen through someone’s eyes. Fashion in its best-case scenario should not need a story to be sold to someone. You either like it or not. The set of this show is a metaphor for digging for truth and being down to earth. Let us let everyone be anyone and make love not war.”
You can watch a video of Kanye modelling the clothes in the video below.