After Virgil Abloh received criticism from renowned Belgian designer Walter Van Beirendonck, Kanye West has jumped on Twitter to defend him.
In a tweet directed at an account Ye seems to believe belongs to the designer, but actually appears to belong to someone else entirely, he fought back against the "copycat" claims Van Beirendonck leveled against Virgil. "Hi @WBeirendonck Virgil can do whatever he wants," he wrote. "Do you know how hard it's been for us to be recognized? Coming from Chicago?"
Just a few moments later, he shared a picture with featuring him and Virgil hugging at the latter's first Louis Vuitton menswear show in 2018. "Hi Diet Prada hi Walter," he wrote, referring to fashion watchdogs and Van Beirendonck. "Come for us all!!!"
In the past, Diet Prada has directly addressed Kanye with allegations of plagiarism. In 2018, the Instagram account for Diet Prada compared the #SUPERMOON Yeezy campaign to photography from Eli Russell, while they also recently criticized him following the announcement of his partnership with GAP. Diet Prada produced a bunch of mock-ups for the YZY x GAP collection, with "Make America Great Again" and "SLAVERY WAS A CHOICE" written on the designs.
They later apologized, admitting their "intentions of using satire" ultimately "fell flat."
What prompted Kanye's tweets was Van Beirendonck's accusation that Virgil Abloh plagiarized some of his previous work for Louis Vuitton's SS21 menswear collection. Speaking with Hypebeast earlier this month, Van Beirendonck said, "This is not just copying, this is using my world, ideas, colors, signature, cuts, shapes as his collection moodboard." He added that Virgil could have even asked to collaborate, but he's likely not down anymore because he added, "I HATE COPYCATS."
As HighSnobiety pointed out, Kanye previously wore some of Van Beirendonck's work during a visit to Japan last year. It remains to be seen if Van Beirendonck will respond to Kanye's tweet, but the Twitter account Yeezy tweeted at has responded. "Why is everyone following me? I'm scared," the account tweeted after Kanye mentioned them. "I like Kanye. If I did something wrong, forgive me."
