March 4, 2020 |
Who has a show outside, at night, in February, during the wettest Paris Fashion Week on record? Kanye, that’s who. Whispers of a Yeezy happening began circulating only a few days before, and it came just a day after he brought the house down with a joyful Sunday Service gospel show in Paris. Oscar Niemeyer’s undulating Communist Party Headquarters was the stunning architectural backdrop for the eighth iteration of the Yeezy project. A crush to get in. A chorus of car horns. Then the show started. Models, their faces impassive, walked slowly down the curving concrete ramp. Their strange, impassive demeanour and sand coloured outfits put you in mind of dazed alien abductees being returned to earth from an extended stay on Rey’s home world, the desert planet of Jaku. There were asymmetric bra tops, quilted leggings and puffy, down crop tops. Where you’d wear one of those is anyone’s guess but where there’s a will, there’s a way. Footwear-wise, expect the were cornflower yellow trainers, quilted snow boots and squashy pool slides to have cult appeal. It’s good to see Yeezy experimenting and pushing beyond the parameters of streetwear merch. Yeezy divides people – those who dismiss it, and those that hang on its every drop. It definitely has a strong, identifiable aesthetic, which is half the battle for any designer. We stood on the grassy knoll in the freezing night and watched it all unfold with spectacular images projected onto the undulating Niemeyer facade. Then North West stepped up to the mike and rapped out some verses. She was good – thank God. Paris Fashion Week is a tough stage to fall short on.
Photographs by Jackie Nickerson.
