When Kanye West took his talents to the runways in Paris, the rapper’s aesthetic was not pleasantly received by some of the fashion masses, but there is at least one well-respected person who is willing to vouch for Yeezus, shoe designer Giuseppe Zanotti.
In a recent interview with Jay Z’s website, Life + Times, the shoe designer was more than willing to talk about the “brotherly” love (albeit with a hefty age gap) he has for Kanye West. But he also called the brotherhood one based on “sympathy”
Giuseppe also reveals that he would love to collaborate on a show with Kanye during Milan Fashion Week.
Check out some notable excerpts from the interview below.
L+T: Do you have a favorite album or artist to listen to when you are creating?
GZ: I enjoy a lot listening to Kanye’s music but I also like Clash, Nirvana, Talking Heads. I live for music.
L+T: Speaking of Kanye [West], you have a great friendship with him. What do you think of his design attempts?
GZ: My friendship with Kanye is a matter of sympathy and true brotherly love. On the professional side, I believe he is an extremely versatile artist, a renaissance man. It’s not just a matter of good sound; there is the sound, the lyrics, his own outfits, the album cover, the video clips…everything is perfectly taken care of and he creates poetry for your spirit and body. I think he really has great potential.
I enjoyed working with him and observing through his fashion designs the way trends are changing. We all have to follow this wave of change offering new ideas, new incentives to grow. Fashion now is not an end in itself, it’s not showing off like in the ’80s or just a runway like in the ’90s or a total look like in the 2000′s. Nowadays everybody has the freedom to follow his or her instinct and to wear any brand and to listen to any music. To mix and match. We should all recognize this change and be part of it. Kanye, with his courage and his honesty has done his part. He was not afraid of facing such a dangerous world such as the fashion one, he was not afraid of shouting to everyone who he is.
L+T: How did the Cruel Summer Giuseppe Zanotti shoe come about?
GZ: It was a reciprocal intuition connected on one side to some graphic elements in Kanye’s album cover and on the other side to one of my sandals. We both wanted to add something respectively to the cover and to the sandal, bringing a strong message but a harmonious and balanced one at the same time.
L+T: Do you think people were unfairly harsh on Kanye’s fashion line?
GZ: People are too hard when something new changes the balance. Unfortunately, the fashion planet is not only a creative system, but also a political machinery. Kanye entered the entire environment with his head held high and his brave nature has to be respected.
Honesty, throughout 30 years, I have been meeting designers who did not do their work so well and they could not play good music either. I think that some little details should be forgiven to brave people; on the contrary, a boring fashion week edition is unforgivable. I really would love having a guest designer like Kanye during Milan’s fashion week. He could shake the system with his adrenaline.
Head over to Life And Times for the full interview.
SOURCE: Life and Times
