Kanye, Fashion Designer: The Aftermath

2011 October 3

Kanye takes a bow in Paris
Getty Images View Gallery

The rapper's hotly-anticipated debut effort on the runways of PFW this past Saturday, DW by Kanye West, was roughly one-third major celeb and editor turnout, two-thirds predictably harsh reviews, with a dash of favorable feedback thrown in the mix. While WSJ panned the wares, with Christina Binkley decrying "necklines plunged so precariously that they seemed a personal shout-out to J-Lo," the Telegraph used an MRI simile for the show's experience, and NY Times' Eric Wilson opted for a more ambiguous "confusing" to describe West's first stab at designing, paralleling West's approach to "sampling fashion like he samples different styles of music." The references (or rip-offs?) in West's collection included a couple mentions of Balmain, a bit of Pucci, and nods to the flashy Grammy-apropos styles West tends to surround himself in. But back to the front row; the editor turnout was ample, including the big guns (see: Anna Wintour) and the big bylines from both sides of the Atlantic. The front row fray included an impressive posse of designers as well, like Olivier Theyskens, Azzedine Alaïa, Silvia Venturini Fendi, DSquared2's Dean and Dan Caten, Jeremy Scott, while the celeb set included the Olsens, Lindsay Lohan, Ciara, and Jared Leto. At the very least, West is hard to top as a performer and he certainly entertained with his inaugural catwalk prowl, non?

Daily Front Row