ORIGINALLY POSTED ON 10/17/2016
Let's flashback to October 2011 when Kanye made his first Paris fashion debut with DW, homage to his mother Donda West. Labeled as a "flop" by fashion critics, I actually thought the line was fucking dope. I was hoping that I got a big refund check from college to pay for some of the pieces, which I did get but the actual line never came into fruition. Now maybe another fashion critic will debate me on this but I thought DW was pretty genius.
For starters, Kanye used his own money from touring to bring his vision to life and gave an amazing opportunity to fashion students to help with designing and constructing the pieces. This line also gave us the oh so popular "Cruel Summer" that is still, if not the most popular Giuseppe Zanotti heel*. Mr. West also gave us a collection that didn't scream, Kanye or online boutique rather. When I revisit DW, all of these pieces HIT! I see pieces inspired by DW EVERYWHERE. I know fashion is inspired by any and everything but let's try to figure why Kanye's first line was such a fail.
When showing in October, you are revealing your spring collection. So yeah, maybe DW only had a few pieces that met the Spring "requirements" and was a little heavy on the use of leather in the spring, hell I wore leather all year. Overall, the line had many feminine yet sexy pieces but maybe the heavy layering in the spring threw his audience or maybe Kanye was just ahead of his time. Let's not forget Kanye's BBC interview where he said designers laughed at the idea of leather joggers but that following season we saw them everywhere.
DW was definitely iconic to me and reminiscent of Vince, Zimmerman and Wang. Kanye also retaught us an age old lesson, never give up on your dreams. No matter who laughs, thinks you're weird someone will tell you yes. Also Ye' if you have those DW pieces in storage somewhere, send them to me. Again, I'd make those pieces hit!
Editor's note: Zanotti still has the Cruel Summer in his collection the name has just been changed.