The first thing that most fashion journalists do at some point in the early morning is scroll through WWD for the headlines. So when the fashion trade journal posts something titled “Kanye’s New Hit: Yeezy Season 1 Collection Sells Out at Retail,” you can only imagine how the day’s post begin to shape up about the collection. Details wrote “The Prices for Yeezy Season One Can’t Have Been That Bad” with a deck of “Because it basically sold out” while Elle went with “Praise Yeezus: Kanye West’s Yeezy Season 1 Collection Sells Out at Retail.” From our assessment though, the messaging is a little enthusiastic to say the least.
If one publication got it right in a headline, we’d have to point to Quartz with their astute fashion editor Marc Bain titling his piece “Kanye West’s $585 duck boots are the hit of his new fashion line.” The headline is succinct, accurate and specific, which is where some of the others lack. Yes, Ye’s duck boot is undoubtedly the fastest moving item of the line. From the WWD article which surveys Barneys New York, Mr Porter, The Webster in Miami, Wish in Atlanta and Black Market USA in Texas, as well as our own sampling of mostly online outlets, the boots in all color ways seemed the hardest to acquire. But for those who are looking to get their hands on a pair, New York-based brand Kith has a few women’s styles in pirate black, moon rock and turtle dove on their site. (For the men, you might want to consider copping that 10.5) The apparel of the collection didn’t move quite as well.
If you pop over to e-commerce site SSENSE you’ll find an almost comprehensive stock of the line’s basics in men’s and women’s. The selection starts with a $180 oversized tank top, includes khaki suede duffle bag for $1040 and also some high priced outerwear for $3,510. The prices are steep to say the least but it seems they didn’t deter everyone. A boucle sweater that was a favorite of mine and was reported as a bestseller by Barneys in the WWD article is hard to come by but Kith has the $1,690 item in stock. Even with how well Barneys said the pieces moved on the sales floor, there’s still french terry sweatpants and cut-off sweatshirts available on their site.
This is not Mr. West’s first go at fashion (we all remember DW by Kanye West) so he doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt. While yes, his did pieces did sell well — exceptionally well given the high prices and reported lack of quality, — to say that they “sold out,” is just factually inaccurate. But this is a major moment for him, a stepping stone to see where Yeezy Season 2 will take us, though critically it’s been assessed as only a slight morph of this first collection. Considering adidas has already announced that they would not be the way backing the roll out production wise, one can only wonder what tricks the creative still has up his sleeve.
What do you think?
Did you purchase anything from KW’s collection?