Earlier this year, Dirk Standen got a legendary interview for Style Dot Com with Kanye West about his Yeezy Season 1 presentation. It was nothing short of immaculate and incredibly in-depth. This season, since Style Dot Com is no more, Dirk did the same thing, this time for Vanity Fair. It's long and in-depth and, as always, a great read. Naturally, you should read the entire thing, but we'll pick out the best snippets since it's the morning and you can't really be bothered with all those words right now.
He's already working on Season 3:
Like, right now I’m thinking about Season 3. It’s a long, long run. Unfortunately for me, I have a lot of visibility on my side which has tended to be a thing that creates a distraction to the creative process, like paparazzi showing up at my office in Calabasas. But I almost feel I’m growing just like my daughter. I hear my daughter start to say exactly what she wants and to finish sentences and I think it’s like that. Like, maybe I got to finish a couple more sentences in the second one than in the first one.
The color story going from light to dark has nothing to do with race:
It was only colors of human beings and the way these palettes of people work together and really just stressing the importance of color, the importance of that to our sanity, these Zen, monochrome palettes.
Why he chose "Fade" to premier at the presentation:
We had a couple options and I just thought it sounded good against the people. For the 40 theaters across the globe, for the kids that all went to see it in theaters, I thought they’d be happy to hear some new music. I’ve been doing that [making a new album] too. That’s like a sonic landscape, a two-year painting. That song I played has been a year and a half in the making and it may be still a year from being complete. But it was to let people get a glimpse at the painting.
Where's SWISH?
I’m not sure. I’m not worried about the years. I’m worried about the life and the body of work that I can put out while I’m breathing.
The cozy look is how people want to dress:
I think people just wear yoga pants and sweatshirts, and I wanted to make the most beautiful version of that possible. ... Sweatshirts are fucking important. That might sound like the funniest quote ever. How can you say all this stuff about running for president in 2020 and then say sweatshirts are important? But they are. Just mark my words. Mark my words like Mark Twain.
On the schism between the shoes being done with Adidas, but not the clothing and how important it was simply just show Season 2:
Yeah, we do the shoes with Adidas and this past season we just did apparel on our own out of Calabasas with a small team traveling to the dye houses and making the patterns and just working 30 hours a day against all odds. We didn’t sleep. ... I felt the responsibility to come back for spring and deliver that next collection because, at this stage, as early as I am into expressing myself and making clothes, it’s just way too privileged to take a season off. Are you fucking kidding me? My toe is barely in the door, my foot is barely on the gas, I’ve got to press down harder. The most successful thing about the second season was just doing the second season.
Will the new clothing be available? And what about the "Yeezys for everybody" mantra?
Yes, stores and online. ... As we transition to eventually where I want to take the footwear, we’ll still keep limited colors for people who are involved in that culture. ... But I’m sitting there and I’m looking at the 350s and I’m thinking about the Submariner Rolex or thinking about the Eames chair. It’s like how do you take this thing to a place where it’s just the classic shoe? I feel like the Air Force One or the shell toe speak to the ultimate version of what sneakers were 20 years ago. And I think there’s something about the 350s, that feeling of what sneakers are today. And I just want to keep going in there and working on the shape and the last and the way the knit feels, the padding, the colors, to hopefully make that shoe where 20 years from now people say the 350 represented what shoes were in 2016. And we’re doing the same thing for the 950s and the 750s
He still loves Gap:
And I just told him, this is my romance with the Gap. ... I picture the Gap in some way different than I think the rest of people picture it.I say things like I want to be creative director for the Gap, but I just got to give credit to the people who do creative direction at the Gap. I’ve got to give super-props to Mickey Drexler. I know he’s not at the Gap anymore.
Does he have concrete plans about actually running for president?
The only concrete plan is that I plan to use concrete [in his eventual retail locations]... Oh, definitely.
Read the full conversation at Vanity Fair.
