Kanye has had some week. Releasing his new Yeezy Boosts, performing on the 40th anniversary special of SNL and debuting his first collection with adidas at New York Fashion Week – and still found time to fit in interviews.
Kanye, as he stressed in an interview with us, spoke about the collection being solution-based and that he wants to make products for everyone. And now 'Ye has gone further and explained some of inspirations for his first collection in greater detail, specifically whilst he was living in London.
Kanye spoke to Style.com recently and revealed that the London riots in 2011 were a "major influence" on his adidas collection.
I also just wanted to say a major influence was the London riots because I was living in London at that time and saw the way that the kids wanted the clothes and I didn’t have the skill set to do the more inexpensive clothes. This designer said to me one time, we were looking at something online, “This looks like a really bad couture designer that no one knows.” Think about the idea of a really terrible couture designer, which there are a lot of. I didn’t have the skill set to do inexpensive clothes. Now I have a team of really, really great designers that speak in a very Apple, Pixar-type [way].
Beyond the London riots, he spoke of his other inspirations for the "Yeezy Season 1" collection.
You guys know my fucking influences. I've got four influences and it’s written all over the face, you know the combination. Just as much as Drake is influenced by Kanye West, you know my fucking influences. You see Raf Simons right there, you see Helmut [Lang], you see [Maison] Margiela, you see Vanessa [Beecroft], you see Katharine Hamnett. It’s blatantly right there. I’m not going to try and act like I was influenced by a fucking dog walking down the street that broke its ankle that I had a heartfelt discussion with. I had a heartfelt discussion with all of these fucking Helmut Lang images that I stared at for so many years. I had a heartfelt discussion with my Tumblr.
You can read the whole interview with Style.com here.
