Kanye West’s Fashion Downfall

Words by Rosalie Gadoua-Giroux

Unless you’ve been living under a rock these past years, or are not an enthusiastic user of social media, you will be well-aware of Kanye West’s erratic conduct. From social media posts attacking the Kardashian family – including his toxic behaviour towards his ex-wife – to his recent suspensions from both Instagram and Twitter, the spotlight, has he has always wanted it to be, seems to be permanently fixed on him.

While the self-proclaimed ‘fashion genius’ has been getting away relatively scot-free with these behaviours, his scandals from the past week alone might be the last straw. His descent began when he publicly criticized his deal with Adidas claiming that they had “raped and stole” his designs. The brand announced that its dealings with West would be under review and has since terminated their affiliation, which could possibly lead to the end of the planetary phenomenon that is Yeezy.

His onslaught of offensive acts continued in the following days when he seemingly displayed anti-Semitic behaviour on Twitter. While some of his tweets were abnormally centered around the Jewish community, others were unequivocally discriminating: in one of them, he proudly announced he was going “defcon 3 on Jewish people”.

His crowning achievement was wearing a ‘White Lives Matter’ T-Shirt (a white supremacist slogan) at a Paris fashion week show where high-profile individuals such as the CEO of Balenciaga were also in attendance. Although West had opened the 2023 summer show of the brand just a few weeks earlier, it was announced on the 21st of October that all ties between them had been completely severed.

With no ending in sight to Kanye West’s impropriety and more and more brands choosing to end their affiliation with him, I think it is safe to say that the rapper’s fashion career is on its last leg. It remains to be seen what Ye will do or say next so we will continue to follow the developments of this saga and hope the designer refrains from his onslaught of racist and abhorrent comments.