Amid massive amounts of fanfare in a presentation held at Madison Square Garden, Kanye West revealed Yeezy Season 3, a men’s and women’s collection that also included an update of the Adidas Originals Yeezy 350 sneaker plus a new 1050 boot silhouette. Extras were styled wearing Adidas’s Tubular, NMD, Gazelle, Stan Smith, and Superstar silhouettes as well as Yeezy Season 3 shoes and accessories.
This time around offerings were just a touch more colorful with shades of peach, orange and even silver added to the palette, but overall his designs stayed rooted in earth tones with silhouettes very much a continuation of the sport and utilitarian themes West showed in his first two collections.
The push back West often receives is that he’s not reinventing the wheel or that his designs are derivative, but not being the first is a common complaint levied at all creatives. The truth is, Kanye West is building a brand and a following driven by a combination of his appeal as an artist and how that is expressed through his sartorial choices.
What will be interesting to track is Yeezy receptivity among women. Ye’s credentials as an influencer worth following among men are solid as a rock. Women may not be as complicit, though big picture really, it’s a minor stumbling block (especially since most of the designs are men’s). At this point probably his biggest hurdles are more about execution (sourcing, sizing, pricing, distribution) than convincing anyway, male or female, he is the real deal who deserves a place at the table.
