Kanye West has endured much criticism about his Yeezy Season One fashion show for Adidas, but for the most part, has seemed to take it in stride. But when Fern Mallis, the creator of New York Fashion Week, told the New York Post that she was “kind of over” the star, he took to Twitter to post a response to the fashionista.
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Addressing her directly in a series of Tweets, West, 37, said that his fame and his race both were obstacles in being taken seriously as a fashion designer. “To Fern Mallis: I just want you to understand that attempting to do clothing has been very difficult, and I have encountered countless amounts of bigotry along the way,” he wrote.
Mallis, speaking at designer Jeremy Scott’s show on Wednesday (where West also had a front row seat), was blunt in her assessment of West. “I mean, I’m not a fan of his music, and the attitude and the agenda is not my style,” she said.
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West can be equally blunt when it comes to defending himself, but his Twitter response was more measured than usual. “I have millions of ideas and I represent a new generation just trying to express themselves in a broken world,” he Tweeted. “I don’t call myself a designer as I was not allowed to go to Saint Martins because I was too famous by the time I realized I wanted to design. Fame is often looked down upon in the design world, so it’s actually been something I had to overcome.”
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And if you had any doubt that West is serious about having a real discussion with Mallis, look no further than the fact that he invited her to drinks at The Spotted Pig (where he and new pal Taylor Swift reportedly recently grabbed a meal).
“All we have are our dreams, and you can step on our dreams and ideas all you want, but we won’t stop fighting,” he wrote. “We want to innovate and we will win someday.”
Do you agree with his response?
–Andrea Billups
