Kan-"Yeezy" Goes to Paris

This weekend Kanye West debuted his fashion line in Paris and the interwebs went crazy (I guess I can include myself in that now). West has been both panned and praised, with stars like Ciara calling his show "monumental" and fashion insiders using air quotes at his "designer" status while others were a bit more even-handed. Personally, I viewed Kanye's debut like a Project Runway fashion show. The ideas were innovative and fashion forward, while the execution left something to be desired.


Let's start with the positive: there were a lot of pieces in the collection that I would wear. Mostly the knits which looked comfortable and loose in that wonderfully, slouchy way I'm always looking for.

Which leads me to the first issue: fit. Although you want your knits to be comfy and slouchy, most women don't want their pants to be (unless they are sweatpants, then slouch it up.) There's a lot of bunching around the thighs, calves and ankles and the crotch area is a bit wonky (yes, that is a technical term). And the color-blocking on these orange pants are emphasizing some rather unfortunate areas instead of de-emphasizing them. 

As a woman with substantial cleavage, I did enjoy his low-cut dresses. Since I'm not a model, I'm not exactly sure where I would wear this dress but I'd have a lot of fun trying to figure it out. There is a bit of that funny bunching again but without being there, I can't say whether that's bad construction or a bad choice of material. Overall, the dress harkened back to Calvin Klein with it's minimalist aesthetic and basic black. 

West also did some takes on bandage dresses with a hint of skin that were sexy and demure. Where he could have improved were his color choices. The dress on the left would've been elevated in that blue he used for the knits above. The overall effect was similar to Phillip Lim and the obvious inspiration was Herve Leger. 

West used some interesting detailing such as fur and zippers and deconstructed some of the pieces to give it a gritty edge. Like I said, innovative and interesting, but the fit and construction issues will kill a "designer" every time. I'd love to see a second attempt from him and hey if he's reading, I wouldn't mind a sweater (or a Yeezy necklace!).