As I’m sure most of you know September brings with it new fashion trends and fun fashion festivities. *Cue Tim Gunn’s voice* It’s NYFW, people! This is the week where designers like Marchesa, Vera Wang, and Project Runway vet Christian Siriano show off their best creations for the year’s most important seasons! Kanye West was in the lineup once again this year with the debut of his Yeezy Season 4 collection. But sadly for Yeezus fans, show-goers reported that the sneak peek was underwhelming, completely disorganized, and aggressively crude.
‘Ye showcased his new installment to his Adidas line at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park – which serves as an allegory of our freedoms written in the Constitution, as well as freedom from want and freedom from fear – on Wednesday. But many issues arose that day starting with the withheld location of the show being made public 12 hours before the show, which was supposed to start at 3:00pm. If this gives you any indication to how the rest of the show went, I’m positive that you’ve already realized how catastrophic the rest of the day went.
Shuttles were provided for the guests (oh how thoughtful of you, Kanye!), and after an hour bus ride (wait…what?), the guests finally arrived at the park only to sit in the scorching heat for another hour or two (on second though, I’ll livestream the show from my air-conditioned house, thanks). So although the Kardashian/Jenners got the best seat in the house – right in the shade – the models weren’t so lucky.
Now, I commend Kanye for embracing women of color and for putting on an interesting show, but I don’t think that this was the time or place to make a political or cultural point, because onlookers were more concerned with the models’ health and wellbeing rather than their skin color. Models draped in solid-colored oversized hoodies, parkas, bralettes, knit-tank dresses, and over-the-knee boots stood no chance against the incessant heat. These women dropped like flies, and there were no medical officials in sight to tend to their heat-stroke and dehydration. One particular model, decked in a black hooded coat and over-the-knee boots, had to be escorted down the catwalk by Bergdorf Goodman’s Bruce Pask because the boots were almost impossible to walk in.
Although its being said that Kanye held the show mainly for his high-profile guests and not for the fashion itself, the only thing people are going to remember from his show are the horrifying images of models standing in formation fearing the heat in the very park that seeks to grant its visitors freedom FROM fear, and the begging question of why nobody – the Adidas sponsors, the choreographer, or even Kanye himself – were aiding these ladies in some way. It’s likely that his washed-out, mundane, low-cost looking garments will be soon forgotten.
Women are not objects, Kanye. We are pieces of art that deserve to be cherished, respected and cared for, not placed in a field to fin for ourselves and be gawked at. With that being said, although I find some of Kanye’s music insightful, there is something to be said about a man who treats women in such a fashion (pun intended…not a good time?).
