On Monday night, Kanye West wore a long-sleeved shirt with the slogan “White Lives Matter” emblazoned across it at the launch of the ninth season of his YZY fashion label.
Tuesday saw a firestorm of outrage and criticism in response to the rapper/mogul’s surprise show, which also featured Black models clad in garments reading “White Lives Matter,” a phrase the Anti-Defamation League defines as a hate slogan.
Some of this criticism came from Vogue contributing editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, who was present for the YZY show and who expressed her distaste for the results in no uncertain terms on her Instagram stories.
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“The t-shirts this man conceived, produced and shared with the world are pure violence,” Karefa-Johnson wrote. “There is no excuse, there is no art here.”
In response, West, who recently changed his name to the monosyllabic Ye, posted images of Karefa-Johnson to his Instagram stories, captioning them with cruel taunts: “This is not a fashion person. You speak on Ye Ima speak on you, Ask Trevor Noah,” and “I KNOOOOOOW ANNA HAAAATES THESE BOOTS.”
In response to West’s taunts and the backlash they generated toward Karefa-Johnson, Vogue shared a statement of solidarity across its social media accounts on Tuesday evening. “She was personally targeted and bullied,” it read. “It is unacceptable. ”
The statement also disclosed that Karefa-Johnson had since met with West privately and that “she once again spoke her truth in a way she felt best, on her terms.”
West also posted a screenshot of a conversation with someone identified in his phone as Mowalowa, presumably Nigerian fashion designer Mowalola Ogunlesi, in which she tells West, “I don’t think you should insult that writer, you could actually have [a] real conversation about the tee,” but the damage had been done.
West has not removed his posts, while supermodel Gigi Hadid has spoken out in response to West, also via Instagram, to express her disapproval.
“You wish you had a percentage of her intellect,” Hadid commented. “If there’s actually a point to any of your shit, she might be the only person that could save you. You have no idea haha... As if the ‘honor’ of being invited to your show should keep someone from giving their opinion...? Lol. You’re a bully and a joke.”
The “White Lives Matter” shirts were “so insensitive, hateful and destructive on so many levels that I don’t think the English dictionary has enough words to help me fully describe its vileness,” popular online fashion commentator Nathan Capistrano told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “Now seeing the many headlines and attention (good and bad) the shirt created (not to mention Candace Owens wearing a white version of the shirt at the show), this only gives white supremacists and the KKK steam to continue their hateful terrorism and all that damn awful stuff.”
The Daily Beast reached out to Condé Nast, Karefa-Johnson, and West for comment.
