“This is a challenge to where fashion is currently—a new feminine ideal,” says Kanye West, as his first adidas Originals collection – Yeezy Season 1 – launches around the world on 29th October.
Comprised of both voluminous and second-skin like proportions – the former generally on top, and the latter below – West reiterates the practicality he had in mind with these pieces, describing the easily interchangeable capsule collection as “solutions-based” and akin to Lego. Ultimately, he has, quite literally, aimed to create a series of uniform building blocks, from which his customers can construct a daily identity. “I don’t want the clothes to be the life,” he stresses. “I want the clothes to help the life.”
So what of the garments themselves? They are undoubtedly useful, bar perhaps the aforementioned body-suits, which although editorially striking, may be a little more tricksy to work into any typical circumstance that initially springs to mind. The inky, generously hooded shearling parkas are instantly desirable, as are the gnarled army surplus knits and cotton tanks in that perfect shade of smokey anthracite. But it’s the unisex, outsized sweaters, beautifully constructed yet rough around the edges, that you could really see yourself wearing forever.
West has been clever. He has put just enough of himself into this collaboration – hero pieces such as the camo separates and drop shouldered bomber jackets smack of recognition with “West: the brand” – to make it aspirational, yet left the collection canvas-like in it’s quality, so that customers can see themselves in it too, without having to try too hard.
The decision to have a mass release of the collaboration, as opposed to a staggered global drop seems an obvious one, especially when you consider the transient purposes West had in mind when designing. “I wanted something that felt like New York or Paris or Tokyo or Santa Barbara or Chicago—a worldliness and an ease.”
Rounding off the collection are a number of new footwear releases, the highly anticipated Yeezy Boosts 750 and 350 as well as the Yeezy 950 boots for men and platform snow boots for women. Roll on winter.
adidas Originals by Kanye West – Yeezy Season 1 is in stores now. Prices start from $130.
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