Ye Unveils YEEZY Season 9.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire, 2022 continues to be quite the year for Kanye West. 

Whether it’s on the streets of London and Paris or digitally over Instagram, West continues to be adept at hitting the headlines promoting media outlets, including this one, to report on him and ensure his name is at the forefront of all our minds. 

Just weeks following one of the longest streams of tirades we’ve seen yet from the entrepreneur which saw him airing his frustrations with adidas as well as cutting ties with GAP, Kanye West continues to cause shockwaves. First turning up to the Burberry show in London rocking glittery sandals, then going onto feature on Demna Gvasalia’s monogrammatic, muddy, Balenciaga runway show in a surprise opening.

However, after making a variety of guest appearances at a number of additional shows wearing his Balenciaga gumshield, it was Ye’s turn to showcase the ninth collection in his now global-scale YEEZY venture. 

A feat that many others would consider impossible, but for West is almost expected, the whole collection was supposedly planned mere weeks before its debut, with the garments arriving in Paris a day before the show took place. 

Unlike the previous Season’s showcase held on the 8th of March 2020 which saw the largest in-person audience yet, the 2022 show saw a far more intimate affair with only 50 invited. 

Before the show had even started, headlines were about to erupt in another one of West’s confusing, infamous and frankly baffling moves when he appeared wearing the bejewelled flip-flops he began rocking in London last week in conjunction with a long-sleeved t-shirt that read “White Lives Matter” on the back. The phrase, which was used during the Black Lives Matter movement by white supremacists, was also featured within the collection.

Opening the show, Ye came out in front of the crowd with a speech referencing previous YZY SZN 4 which saw a late start as well as models collapsing in the heat, which the press highlighted, in addition to his then-wife Kim Kardashian getting robbed in Paris a week later only to be followed by the artist himself having to go to hospital following a breakdown he experienced on stage during his Saint Pablo tour. 

He says this to further the discussion of self-ownership and to act as examples of how he and “the kids that didn’t make it into the house” (seemingly referencing the designers that didn’t make it into the fashion houses they’d dreamt of, including himself after Virgil Abloh was appointed the Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton in 2018) have managed to forge their own path without "big corporations".

Once again, Ye went on to discuss his mishaps with GAP saying “when we went to GAP…it felt like we were there to be slowed down”. 

Taking a couple of further twists and turns before its conclusion, West also exclaimed “I wonder if Elvis Presley had Instagram, would he have been able to perform in Paris, and not be held back by his manager” as well as closing the speech with a line that you could expect to hear as an opening for a new Drake track: "Bernard Arnault [LVMH CEO] is my new Drake.". 

As Ye walked off, children from the Donda Academy came on while chanting ‘Good Morning Donda’, layered over West’s 2007 ‘Good Morning’ opening followed by gospel-style singing similar to Ye’s Sunday Sessions. 

It was here, that the show began with models walking across the upper levels of the building where the audience was sitting. The idea behind the collection is the future of clothing that removes the hardware of zippers and buttons and focuses on a pull-on/pull-over design as described by West before the beginning of the show. 

Remaining in the same vein as previous YZY SZN collections, the clothing was tonal with little to no branding in sight. Designed alongside Hood By Air founder Shayne Oliver, skin-tight dresses were paired with oversized thigh-high boots in addition to a variety of boxy, oversized, sweatshirts and jackets we’ve become accustomed to since the debut of YEEZY back in 2015.

More than ever, Demna’s inspiration and even references to Rick Owens come through with the juxtaposition of tight-fitting pieces in collaboration with the oversized, exaggerated garments that add to an almost post-apocalyptic sense. 

While YZY SZN 9 featured an all-star cast in the lineup, including Michèle Lamy and Naomi Campbell, the overall message and impression taken away is, as it was in Ye’s fourth show, a negative one. 

Whether West was aiming for something more with his controversial slogan tee’s and disjointed speech, it has ultimately meant that what is another interesting and detailed collection of clothing, refreshing his audience that is so used to seeing weekly sneaker releases, has been overshadowed with negativity. 

As the world reacts to the latest developments in Kanye West’s journey, the future remains uncertain.

You can watch the full collection here.

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