Kanye West’s Prices Are (Almost) as Inflated as His Ego
It seems like forever ago that Kanye West showed his exhaustingly pretentious collection of torn sweats and tees and things — in collab with Adidas Originals — and said it was “solutions-based”, that he was taking a “Robin Hood approach…to making clothes.” You’ll recall the whole affair, which kicked off New York Fashion Week, was quite lamentable: Northwest wailed, causing Anna Wintour to reprimand Kimye for bringing a baby; editors criticized the extremely late start; and the whole world groaned at the celebrity-draped front row.
But you can forget about forgetting about the sad, forced abomination because here comes the equally outrageous pricing, acquired by the streetwear site High Snobiety. They put the bulk of the stuff — sweats, hoodies, tees — around $425 apiece. Yeah. Knitwear, meanwhile, will begin around $868 and spiral upwards to $1,627. Outerwear — we’ll admit there were some nice coats, even if none of them pushed the envelope — will range from $1,736 to $3,797, and accessories from $488 (canvas backpack) to $868 (leather bag). The shoes, however, are priced to sell, as expected. The Yeezy 750 Boost has already been released for $350, while the Duck boot will retail for $466 and the Yeezy 350 Boost knit sneaker for $206.
High Snobiety says the reason for the steep prices is due to “absolutely top-notch quality that will give luxury houses a run for their money. Each piece is made in Italy at some of the world’s best factories, using only the finest materials.” Fine, if that’s the case. But here’s the thing. West’s music fans, the great majority of them at least, will scoff at those digits, while West’s newfound fashion fans, well, there aren’t very many of those. If anything, the offensive pricing undermines the good work Adidas does with the likes of Raf Simons and Rick Owens.
For the record, here’s the full quote he gave Style.com: “I don’t pander to [fashion], I’m trying to learn from it. Because I believe there’s some information in it that can help people have better lives. And it’s being held and blocked and not given to the people. So this is very much a Robin Hood approach that I have to making clothes…I’m only concerned with making beautiful products available to as many people as possible.”
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