“Kanye Fashion” is not Actual Fashion

I do my best to ignore Kanye West, the Kardashians, and just about anything else that is technically pointless and brings me no personal joy.  Okay, so maybe I catch KUWTK, but only as a mind-eraser and with the full-understanding that “reality” shows are anything but, and really it’s just a great source of mindless dribble to use as background noise while I fold laundry.

Here’s the thing, though.  I thought I loved fashion.  I love to wear clothes that make me feel like a million bucks and play with trends to create a new look.  What we wear can be expression, it can make us feel like a million bucks, the professional we need to be at work, a hot mama, a free spirit, a fun-loving young soul, whatever we need in our lives.  Is this not fashion?  Because ever since Kanye West let the word “fashion” escape his big, fat mouth, I’m doubting that I ever actually loved fashion at all.  I do love wearing clothes to set the scene and mood that I need, but perhaps this is not fashion in our post-Kanye vernacular.

One of the problems with being a bubbling source of creativity – it’s like I’m bubbling in a laboratory, and if you don’t put a cap on it, at one point it will, like, break the glass. If I can hone that… then I have, like, nuclear power, like a superhero, like Cyclops when he puts his glasses on.

-Kanye West

Here’s the problem for me.  For Kanye + Krew, “fashion” always seems to be about how many exclusively labeled designer items one can wear at a single moment.  The more highly notable the name, the more fashionable.  The highest Kanye Fashion equates to “head-to-toe Givenchy” or “Tom Ford topped off with a little Yvette Saint Laurent”.  If fashion is truly a form of creative genius, why is it that Kanye Fashion requires either Kanye labels or labels from a select few of the most expensive designers in the world?  Shouldn’t true creative genius be everywhere from the indie labels to the budding stylist all the way up to the big designer brands that we can expect the same basic things from year after year?

I don’t get it.

I think what Kanye West is going to mean is something similar to what Steve Jobs means. I am undoubtedly, you know, Steve of Internet, downtown, fashion, culture.

-Kanye West

Don’t even get me started on his new shoes modeled after the famous Back to the Future 2 Nikes.  I mean, it’s great that he’s giving them to everyone who’s ever been on a red carpet to make them seem insanely popular, then charging wanna-be Kanyes who should be spending more effort getting out of their crappy McDonald’s job than overdrawing their account on a pair of shoes.  We’ve brainwashed our society into a mentality of wearing the same things s the rich and famous making you rich and famous.  Sorry, but great minds and talent are still the best way to success, even if a few notable eccentrics great that barrier on ego alone.

Come on now! How could you be me and want to be someone else?

-Kanye West

Image Credit: Glamour Radar

Can we please go back to understanding fashion for what it is and not for what someone who is clearly mentally ill yells that it is at a higher volume than the sensible people of the world?  Because at this moment, I’m embarrassed to be associated with the word “fashion” with all of it’s new connotations.

Once you’ve dressed, and before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take at least one thing off.

-Coco Chanel

Excess and volume do not define fashion.  How the clothes you wear affect the way to feel, look, act, and interact does.  For me, fashion is less about shopping at the most expensive stores and more about putting together what you have and what you love in a way that makes you feel confident in your own skin, not someone else’s.