While some slept, music mogul-turned-designer Kanye West stayed up into the wee hours posting a rambling diatribe on Twitter that tackled everything from his design pedigree to his ambitions to start a new company called DONDA.
For those who missed out -- and we were among that group until an editor at Fashionista brought the rant to our attention at an event this morning -- the tweets were all sent from London (seeming to confirm recent reports that Yeezy was making a more pemanent home there) between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. local time. He'd started off earlier in the day calling out a Twitter account that had purported to be his fashion label -- and even clarified that his label is called simply, Kanye West, not Dw by Kanye West.
West later went on, however, to recap how he became interested in fashion and how he worked at trying to train himself as a designer -- from interning at Fendi to working at a Giuseppe Zanotti factory:
You guys might think I have some type of backing for my line but I don't.
I did the first fashion show out of my own pocket and used the money I made touring to follow my passion.
I've been working at this for 8 years now ...from the first offers to do urban clothing lines that I turned down...
To begging Bape to do my line and never making any real headway...
To having an office in LA that was shut down after the "MTV" moment along with my tour with GAGA
I moved to Japan for one month after that and designed every night in my room... I had this opportunity to intern at Fendi and was also..
...offered a position to at Versace wich I could not take due to my contract with LV which was for 2 years...
I moved to Rome after I left Japan and worked at Fendi for 4 months under cover ... I was there to give ideas for the men's collection
I snuck to Giuseppe Zanotti Factory still under contract and learned to design woman's shoes for 2 years before my first show in Paris
After doing the first LV collection I was sure I would get a second shot to create but was never given the opportunity
I designed a sneaker called the YEEZY with Nike. I'm "allowed" to design 1 pair of sneakers every 2 years. I have more ideas...
Early 2011 ... I moved to Paris and opened a small design studio... the language barrier was quite difficult...
I still don't have a Paris VAT number to this day... I don't know what a VAT but every time I asked why we didn't have fabrics they said...
... it was because of the VAT.
In Paris I met many great people in design including the master Azzedine Alaia... Azzedine even came by my studio one day : )))
Later he went on to discuss DONDA, a company-slash-think tank that he has started with an aim to "galvanize amazing thinkers and put them in a creative space to bounce there [sic] dreams and ideas." (Interested parties can e-mail contactDONDA@gmail.com, apparently.) Dream projects (real and imagined) currently on West's docket include a seven-screen experience he calls "2016 Olympics," the MTV Awards, and collaborating with Spike Jonze on a summer school.
Critics may deride West for being a less-than-stellar designer, but thus far having his far-reaching, epic ideas in the mix has been well worth admitting him into the fashion scene.
