Are you ready for this? Friends and collaborators Ye and Demna, who until recently went by their full names Kanye West and Demna Gvasalia, are joining forces for a project at Gap. “It is a vision come true to work with Gap and Demna, the creative director of Balenciaga, to make incredible product available to everyone at all times,” Ye told Vogue.
The collection brings together the world famous rapper and creative and the hottest high fashion brand on the planet right now via the ubiquitous American retailer. Demna’s debut couture collection for Balenciaga last July was universally lauded as a triumph, and for a ready-to-wear follow-up, he partnered on a mini-episode of The Simpsons, complete with a Paris red carpet premiere. Ye, meanwhile, signed a giant 10-year deal with Gap in 2020, and though only a couple of items have been released so far, it’s attracted off-the-charts levels of attention. When it first went on sale last summer, the $200 Round Jacket crashed Gap’s website and instantly sold out. Now, there’s a red one on offer at the resaler Goat.com for $7,800.
Collaborations have become the lingua franca of the fashion world—see Fendi and Versace’s Fendace mashup; indeed, see Balenciaga and Gucci’s fall 2021 “hacking” activation. But Ye and Demna see this differently. Officially, the project is called Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga.
Source: Vogue
Omni Talk is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga founded Omni Talk in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail. 