At long last the collaboration between GAP, Balenciaga and Ye, is available in stores, but not all fans are feeling it.
Not because of the fashions themselves, but because of Ye's insistence at how they be displayed—in giant piles inside trash bags strewn around the floors of GAP stores.
Some fans see it as yet another outside-the-box Ye-style stroke of genius. But given some of the garments cost upwards of $300, many others are deeply unimpressed.
Ye's demands for how the Yeezy GAP line be displayed came to light after a customer posted pictures of the line inside a GAP store, which instantly went viral.
See the display below.
\u201cThis is how they are selling Yeezy GAP. The sales associate said Ye got mad when he saw they had it on hangers and this is how he wanted it. They won\u2019t help you find ur size too, you just have to just dig through everything\u201d— little miss (@little miss) 1660607063
In their caption, the customer, Owen Langan, claimed GAP is also not helping customers sift through the piles of $300 garments to find their correct size.
They wrote:
"This is how they are selling Yeezy GAP."
"The sales associate said Ye got mad when he saw they had it on hangers and this is how he wanted it."
"They won’t help you find ur size too, you just have to just dig through everything"
Speaking to Newsweek, Langan said at first he thought the display must have been some kind of viral marketing ploy, rather than the the actual product display.
He told the magazine:
"I thought it was an installation or something for an ad campaign at first."
The displays are similar to the product launches of the Yeezy GAP line, promotional photos from which show the garments heaped inside black vans and black dumpsters.
The unorthodox approach has strongly divided Ye's legion of fans.
Some loved the idea and felt it was perfectly on-brand with Ye's offbeat identity as an artist.
\u201c@owen__lang I'm not mad at it. Changing things up its fun and different\u201d— little miss (@little miss) 1660607063
\u201c@owen__lang Being that Ye\u2019 has spoke about his history working for GAP. I get it, its a dig to the corporation, not the employees or customers\u201d— little miss (@little miss) 1660607063
\u201c@owen__lang This is actually brilliant marketing.\u201d— little miss (@little miss) 1660607063
\u201c@owen__lang I don't care for Kanye as a person, but I like what he's doing here. He's making big money making rich people buy clothes like poor people.\u201d— little miss (@little miss) 1660607063
But others felt the move was ridiculous and exploitative.
They were left angry by what they see as a manipulative stunt.
\u201c@owen__lang Balenciaga & Kanye\u2019s fetish with the homeless as \u201cfashion muses\u201d it\u2019s everything that is wrong with billionaires\u2026they no longer see the plight of people, they don\u2019t see humans that are suffering, they see opportunities to be \u201cedgy\u201d and profit from it\u2026it\u2019s disgusting\u201d— little miss (@little miss) 1660607063
\u201c@owen__lang Fishing a $240 hoodie out of a garbage bag.\u201d— little miss (@little miss) 1660607063
\u201c@owen__lang This gotta be a social experiment\u201d— little miss (@little miss) 1660607063
\u201c@owen__lang Goodwill outlet without the quality.\u201d— little miss (@little miss) 1660607063
\u201cThe @Gap X #KanyeWest collaboration in the trash bags\u2026literally. Customers are finding the highly anticipated collab of #GAP X #Ye as a rummage sale - from clothes not being folded - just being thrown onto tables if you are lucky. The rest have to go through trash bags. #fail\u201d— Michael Kuluva (@Michael Kuluva) 1660751320
\u201c@owen__lang Yay. Underpaid GAP employees get to clean up the customer mess every 15 minutes and shove all the stuff back into the bag because a billionaire thought it would look cooler.\u201d— little miss (@little miss) 1660607063
The Yeezy GAP line launched in late July and features looks Ye has been seen wearing out in public in recent months.
It is part of a 10-year partnership between him and the retailer.
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram