The parent company states that the fashion brand now has “no ties to or plans for future projects related to this artist”.
Balenciaga has officially broken up with Kanye West after the rapper made anti-Semitic and offensive comments.
Following its third-quarter earnings report on Thursday, the fashion brand’s parent company, Kering, said in a statement to WWD: “Balenciaga no longer has any ties to or plans for future projects related to this artist.”
Balenciaga began to distance himself from the West after his controversial appearance on the Drink Champs podcast, which launched last week, where he falsely claimed that George Floyd was not murdered, but was killed by fentanyl and even more so Jewish. Contrasting comments were made. On October 17, the fashion giant released a statement saying that West’s runway look from Balenciaga’s Spring 2023 show at Paris Fashion Week had been removed from the Vogue runway, as well as from the website Balenciaga.
Additionally, Balenciaga said it has removed a section from its website dedicated to three Yeezy Gap collaborations engineered by Balenciaga, which launched earlier this year. Those items were no longer available at other online retailers.
With the Balenciaga breakup, West has lost one of his closest and longest-serving allies in the luxury fashion world. Due to West’s long-standing relationship with the fashion house’s creative director, Demna Gvasalia, the two have been linked to each other over the years, circa 2014, when Vestments, the brand Demna, along with her brother, Guram Gvasalia. established, made its place in the world. of fashion. In 2015, the Gvasalia brothers consulted with West regarding their Yeezy Season 1 line, and by the end of the year, Demna was chosen to head Balenciaga.
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As The New York Times previously reported, West and Demna’s relationship really went strong in 2019. The two texted incessantly and eventually started working together again, with Demna serving as creative director at West Donda’s listening parties in 2021.
“With Yeh, I have something that other people really don’t have, where anything is possible,” Demna told the Times last year. “For me, talking to her is like going back in time with my 8-year-old self, who doesn’t have all these barriers and filters. We spent two and a half hours talking about buttons. This kind of conversation helps me grow as a designer because I think, ‘Yeah, why do we do it this way? why button? Why pack? I’d never thought about it before.”
This working relationship continued until 2022, with Balenciaga joining Yeezy as part of the brand’s eventual fateful collaboration with Gap. Although West ended his association with Gap in September, several items from the Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga collection were released. And West, as mentioned above, stayed close to Balenciaga and became the first person to walk the brand’s Paris Fashion Week show; However, as WWD points out, all of West’s images at the Balenciaga show have been removed from the brand’s website.
Of course, West quickly shadowed his unexpected cameo as a model by wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt at the premiere of his new YZY SZN 9 line.
