Yesterday, when Kanye West sent gasping, dehydrated models down a grassy knoll in full-body Spanx, it still only fell somewhere near the midpoint of the most ridiculous spectacles ever to grace the runways of New York Fashion Week. But you wouldn’t know it from the media’s indignant response to Yeezy Season 4, which launched at New York’s Roosevelt Island to such sniffy reviews as “shameful and horrible” and “the product of an abusive relationship.” It seems this, West’s umpteenth abortive attempt to win over style’s elite, will not be the ticket.
Fresh off two nights at Madison Square Garden, West seemingly intended the presentation of Yeezy Season 4 to be likewise jarring performance art. Around 100controversially sourced, amateur models scattered a lawn like lithe Easter Island figures, gaping blankly ahead while clad in an array of nude-colored bodysuits and skivvies. In fashion parlance, this sort of aesthetic—the kind favored by West’s clear inspirations Alexander Wang and Rick Owens—is classified as “athleisure,” meaning it’s vaguely sporty, less heavily structured, and at comparably less eye-gouging price points than high fashion.
Clearly, the show had problems. Yet despite the chaos unfolding around him—models dropped like flies in the heat and tossed off their shoes mid-walk, while style critics complained volubly—West reportedly looked pleased. Then, in an Escher-like feedback loop of retail, hesold merch to commemorate his fashion presentation, as though it were another tour stop. The February showing of Yeezy Season 3 at MSG was no different, only that it actually was an extension of his music, doubling as the Life of Pablopremiere. Sporting a T-shirt you bought as a souvenir of a fashion show, instead of the clothes presented there: Well, at least Kanye knows his audience.
West has been trying to breach Fashion Week’s shiny, savage scrum since 2012, when he debuted abusy collection of zippers, leather, crystals and a whole rash of “Project Runway” accouterments. The fashion press has been generally unkind to Ye since, treating him like a one-size-fits-all punching bag for unwarranted ego, but they’ve rarely been this condescending. Below, a collection of the worst burns West has fielded for his fashion sins.
Yeezy Season 4; Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
On Yeezy Season 4
The Cut: "An hours-long process that took us to a remote location, to witness what felt like a torture session for a bunch of civilian models, and a terrible experience of feeling complicit in enabling the situation.”
[The Cut’s critic, Stella Bugbee, also called for its boycott.]
Women’s Wear Daily: “This has become an abusive relationship. To a great extent, fashion and the press have only ourselves to blame. We’ve been world-class enablers of Kanye West, allowing him to put us at his mercy.”
The New York Times:“For a man known for his rambling, far-reaching riffs, in his fourth fashion season, it turned out Mr. West had nothing to say.”
The Washington Post:“Worse than bad… it was boring”—and that’s just the headline. Later, this damning kicker: “Fame is easy. Good clothes are hard.”
Fashionista: “What's the opposite of a God dream? I think we'd just witnessed it.”
Yeezy Season 2; Randy Brooke/Getty Images
On Past Yeezy Collections
The New York Times: “It seemed as if Mr. West’s approach to making a dress was like a cook wrapping leftover turkey.”
Famed fashion critic Cathy Horyn, writing for The Cut: “This second round of drab, broken-down basics proved he can't be taken seriously as a designer.”
The Daily Beast:“If he wants to be more than a style influencer, he needs to get back to work.”
Kelly Cutrone, People’s Revolution:“I think he’s fine as a rapper. I think he’s a joke as a fashion designer.”
Fern Mallis, creator of Fashion Week: “I’m kind of over Kanye.”
Yeezy Season 1; Gary Gershoff/WireImage