2022 has barely started when we can already tell: this is the most unexpected collaboration of the year. It brings together Kanye West, Gap and Balenciaga.
For a long time, fashion brands resorted to exceptional collaborations, seeing them as a communication tool who created the event and widened their target by attracting their partner’s customers in their nets. Yes, but. In recent seasons, the claws don’t stop anymore and announce collaborations with a vengeance competing in ingenuity to surprise consumers. Even if it means no longer really making sense? In any case, just since the 1er January 2022, there was the new part of the collab between Gucci and the North Face, that of Prada and Adidas, without forgetting Balmain dressing Barbie. This time it’s Balenciaga (or Gap, or Kanye West, we don’t know) who hits a big blow. A six-handed collection that we know nothing about, except that it will be talked about.
Kanye West and Gap, a rolling business
In 2020, Gap and Kanye West, who calls himself Ye, dropped a little bomb on the fashion planet. The rapper and the star label of the 90’s announced their partnership. Revisited logo, drops expected like so many messiahs, pieces resold three times their price on second-hand platforms … This collaboration, which to date has only one oversize down jacket in black, red or electric blue (sold for 200 dollars) and a sweatshirt available in six colors for adults and children (at 90 dollars), should last ten years.
Kanye West and Balenciaga, better than a love story
It’s a real passion. The rapper, a regular at the brand’s catwalks (we remember him at the haute couture show in July 2021 wearing a mask that covered his entire face), developed an almost obsession for the Parisian house. In recent months, each of his releases has been an opportunity for the artist to proclaim his love for the label led by the Georgian designer. Demna. And convert all his relatives to Balenciaga mania. You just have to see. While Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are in the middle of a divorce, the rapper invites, during the listening in public of his new album Donda, his ex-wife to appear in Balenciaga haute couture wedding dress. Since then, Kim Kardashian has never left the clothes created by the label founded in 1917, even appearing at the2021 edition of the Met Gala in a total black look signed by Demna. Something to laugh at Internet users who wonder if the divorce of the two Americans is not sponsored by Balenciaga. And it does not stop there since the new companion of Kanye West, the actress Julia fox, also seems to have developed a tropism for the luxury brand that it in turn wears at the least of its appearances.
It is therefore no surprise that Balenciaga and Kanye West end up (finally) putting their names on clothing labels. Bye bye the blue Gap logo, now Yzy fits in a black square. So far, there is not much information about the collaboration. Just do we know, thanks to a terse press release, that the clothes will be branded “Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga“, that they will be a new testimony of”Ye’s commitment to bringing creativity to the forefront and delivering his vision of utilitarian design for all“. No price, no official release date except for the mention”available worldwide in 2022 in addition to Yeezy Gap drops“. According to Vogue, a first part will be marketed in June, the second a few months later. An entire program.
Demna for Balenciaga, serial collaborator
For his part, Demna, the artistic director of Balenciaga since 2015, has been working together at a steady pace since his appointment at the head of the house. In 2021, the creator thus created a collection with Gucci, also brand of the Kering group, imagined barefoot effect shoes with Vibram and a line of merchandising clothes for Rammstein in April, Crocs with heels, a collection with NASA and another with PS5 in June, virtual clothes for Fortnite game in September, featured an episode of Simpson couture version in October … In short, it never stops. His hobby: affix the signature of the prestigious house he runs on everyday objects, brands that are not luxurious but are extremely popular. A bias that was already his with his label Clothes. Parades in a McDonald’s, DHL T-shirts, boots with lighter heels … He did it all! And it pays off: thanks to his unique fashion vision, Balenciaga became the most influential luxury brand in the industry in the third quarter of 2021. We bet it will also be at the top of the ranking in 2022?