One of a handful of editors evited to Ye‘s Yeezy Season 9 presentation, editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson responded in real time at the sight of a model walking the runway in a shirt featuring a “white lives matter” graphic. On a video showing the model, Karefa-Johnson wrote, “Here come the bullshit,” followed by “I’m fuming, collecting my thoughts, dm me for my working thesis. Indefensible behavior.”
Karefa-Johson followed up with a DM exchange on the shirt and then went on to sum up her thoughts on the graphic. She wrote in part, “The tshirts this man conceived, produced and shared with the world are pure violence.
“There is no excuse, there is no art here….I do think if you asked Kanye, he’d say there was art, and revolution, and all of the things in that t-shirt.”
In response to the critique, Ye took to Instagram, his favorite platform as of late, and rather than attacking Karefa-Johson for the substance of her argument, chose instead to post an image of her with a caption questioning her style acumen. Under an image of Karefa-Johson wearing a skirt with knee-high Timberland boots, Ye wrote, “This is not a fashion person You speak on Ye Ima speak on you Ask Trevor Noah.”
Ye followed up with a DM from designer Mowalola, who addressed his attack on Karefa-Johnson. Indicating she viewed his approach as misguided, she wrote, “I also don’t think u should insult that writer.” U could actually hv real conversation about the tee.”
While Ye’s Instagram post comments are filled with his usually supporters, he received push back from multiple, prominent people in the industry including model Gigi Hadid and stylist Zerina Akers.
Karefa-Johson has not made a public statement on the attacks.
