We knew Kanye West would celebrate his “Shoe of the Year” Award win with an epic rant. The rapper-cum-designer complains incessantly about how he’s treated in the fashion industry, claiming he’s discriminated against for not being gay and even calling out journalists by name. Of course, the second he gets industry recognition, we knew he’d use his platform to lambast all the critics who doubted him. In a 20-minute speech at the Footwear News Achievement Awards, Kanye exceeded our expectations.
Check out 8 things we learned from his speech:
1. He can laugh at himself:
“If you don’t like 10-minute profanity-ridden speeches that end with a presidential bid, you can go to the bathroom.”
2. He once gave unsolicited advice to Phillip Lim:
“I would come by [Phillip’s] studio and play him songs and I’d see fabrics he was working with and asked him to take this girl’s suit jacket and turn it into a guy’s suit jacket,” said West. “If anyone’s seen ‘Runaway,’ I stand on top of the piano, and Phillip custom made that [jacket] for me.”
3. He wasted Giuseppe Zanotti’s money:
“Do you know how much money of [Giuseppe Zanotti’s] I wasted doing sample after sample, learning how to put shoes together right there in the factory? He let me do everything I could think of, including the bone-bead shoes that were in my first amazingly slammed-to-death first fashion show in Paris.”
4. His Adidas budget sucked:
“The (Adidas) contract said 25 (pieces) in the clothing collection. I was supposed to do a fashion show with 25 SKUs — I don’t know how that was supposed to happen. And the original talent budget was $500,000 — I don’t know how I was supposed to put a design team together for that, but luckily I was a multimillionaire rapper and I covered the rest of it. … Hooked you guys up, you know.”
5. He got kicked out of the Fendi office:
“I was friends with Michael Burke and he said I could move to Rome for a little bit. We were there at Fendi and … I’m over there trying to give these guys what I consider to be real ideas and forward ideas and this dude, the creative director, you could not believe. This guy … had one room with some vintage samples and some people on the computer making the most shit ideas you’ve ever seen. And it was just to fill up the stores because Silvia Fendi was no longer doing the men’s. We played loud music in the office and ended up getting kicked out.”
6. “N—as in Paris was inspired by that time he snuck into Alexander McQueen’s show:
“They wouldn’t let me in because I was a celebrity. And [Alexander] was kind of disappointed when he saw me — ‘I thought I said no celebrities!’ And I remember Jay-Z texting me, ‘Get off the runways.’ It’s kind of rude and stuff. And I was like, ‘I’m not fucking leavin.’ So we brought all the ni**as to Paris and made a song about it.”
7. His #lifegoals include a house like Calvin Klein’s:
“I look at you guys and think, like, raise your hand if you got a private plane. Don’t be embarrassed. There’s definitely some people with some private planes tonight. … We’re here to make amazing product that we love that also sells, that makes money. We really like nice things. … I want a house equal or better than Calvin Klein’s house in the Hamptons.”
8. Kim makes him wear suit jackets:
“You’re thinking, where’s my suit jacket, but if my wife’s not here, no suit jacket.”
Watch the full speech here:
[via Footwear News]
