Ye’s ‘White Lives Matter’ sweatshirt draws ire after Yzy show at Paris Fashion Week

Ye has entered the Paris Fashion Week chat the way he knows best: with a big, controversial statement.

The rapper formerly known as Kanye West unveiled a surprise Yzy fashion show Monday in Paris, donning bedazzled flip flops and a black sweatshirt with an image of Pope John Paul II on the front and “WHITE LIVES MATTER” written across the back in big, white letters. He was joined by conservative pundit Candace Owens, who wore a matching shirt in white with black letters.

“Everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam,” Ye wrote in a since-deleted Instagram Stories post. “Now it’s over. You’re welcome.”

During the show, Ye also had model Selah Marley — Lauryn Hill’s daughter and Bob Marley’s granddaughter — wear one of the sweatshirts with a floor-length ponytail and oversized knee-high boots.

The sweatshirts were met with backlash from many in the fashion community, including British Vogue Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful, New York Times director and chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman and Garage magazine fashion director and Vogue contributing editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, who called the sweatshirts “deeply offensive, violent and dangerous.” After Ye shared photos of Karefa-Johnson on Instagram, as he has frequently done with those he feels have wronged him, other fashion industry pros rushed to her defence.

Gigi Hadid referred to Karefa-Johnson as “one of the most important voices in our industry” and said she could “school that disgraceful man in more ways than he knows” in an Instagram Stories post. The fashion editor was recently named in the 2022 Business of Fashion 500 list of people shaping the global fashion industry.

“You’re bullying a Black woman, in fashion, where we are so few — and for what?” commented photographer Campbell Addy, calling it “such a low blow.”

Before the show, Ye delivered a winding, lengthy speech mentioning ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s 2016 Paris robbery, his former manager Scooter Braun, and complaining about past media coverage of his fashion shows focusing on late start times and models fainting on the runway.

“I am Ye and everyone here knows that I am the leader,” he said, later adding: “You can’t manage me. This is an unmanageable situation.”

He continued at another point: “People feel like they have the right to come to my face and call me crazy, like it doesn’t hurt my feelings, or like you don’t have to be crazy in order to change the world.”

The rapper and fashion designer has made headlines in the last month for a public breakup with Gap. He told Vogue Business in an interview published Monday ahead of the show that he now plans on running Yzy as a vertically integrated business. “Even George Lucas had issues with Disney,” he told the outlet. “And now we’re here, and Yzy is established on its own.”

On Sunday, Ye opened the Balenciaga show walking on the runway, where he was spotted arriving with his and Kardashian’s children: North, 9, Saint, 6, Chicago, 4, and Psalm, 3. Khloé Kardashian and Kylie Jenner were also in attendance. Ye also sat front row at Sunday’s Givenchy show.

Monday’s show featured a Sunday Service-esque performance from a group of young children — including his and Kardashian’s eldest daughter, North — as models began showing off Yzy designs. Prior to the show, West shared a mood board for the show that included old photos of teenage versions of Kardashian, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Angelina Jolie, Gisele Bündchen, Naomi Campbell, Irina Shayk, Bella Hadid, Lauryn Hill, Candice Swanepoel, Amelia Gray Hamlin and Emily Ratajkowski.

“Everyone here has dedicated their lives to creating and being a part of something,” Ye said at the show. “Sometimes a cut will be slightly off, a stitch could be slightly off, but we did change the look of fashion over the past 10 years. We are the streets. We are the culture. And we will not be bullied or treated differently than you’ve treated any other fashion show.”

The rapper is no stranger to controversial comments. In 2018, he apologized for saying slavery “sounded like a choice” in a TMZ Live interview. Last year, Ye said he still supports Donald Trump despite not voting for him in 2016 and running against him in a failed 2020 campaign.

In a 2020 interview for WSJ Magazine, Ye shared his thoughts on the outrage that followed his support for the former president.

“I’m a Black guy with a red (MAGA) hat, can you imagine? …It reminded me of how I felt as a Black guy before I was famous, when I would walk in a restaurant and people would look at you like you were going to steal something,” he said. “ ‘This is your place, Ye, don’t talk about apparel. This is your place, Ye, you’re Black, so you’re a Democrat.’

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