Photo-Illustration: El Corte. Photos: Getty Images
It all started with Ye White Lives Matter T-Shirts — presenting this slogan categorized as “hate speech” by the Anti-Defamation League — on the back and a graphic of Pope John Paul II on the front. Ye himself wore the t-shirt, matching guest Candace Owens, to his YZY 9 show during Paris Fashion Week, and the message caused editors to walk away and others to speak out against the slur online. .
“I’m furious,” wrote Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, a hairstylist and Fashion contributing editor, on her Instagram Stories along with a video of a black model wearing the t-shirt on the runway. “Indefensible behavior.” She expanded on her thoughts in Later Stories, writing in part that while she believes she understood Ye’s intentions, “He thought he was a Duchampian,” she doesn’t think it was effective. “He was trying to illustrate a dystopian world in the future when whiteness could be extinguished or at least be in enough danger to demand defense,” she wrote in messages to a friend, captured and shared on Instagram. “But the danger is that, this very premise, the idea that white supremacy is in danger of extinction is what justifies mass incarceration, mass murder, even the advent of slavery,” she continued in the messages of she. Adding more context to the messages in her stories, she called the shirt “deeply offensive, violent and dangerous.”
He then began an indefensible campaign of intimidation against Gabriella Karefa Johnson” uploading three posts about Karefa-Johnson. In one post, which featured a photo of what appears to be the stylist, showing off her style, you wrote, “This is not a fashionable person. You talk about Ye Ima. Ask Trevor Noah.” He then posted a closeup of her boots and brought Fashionby Anna Wintour, writing: “I KNOW ANNA HAS THESE BOOTS.” Wintour was, coincidentally, at the YZY show and has yet to publicly comment on Ye’s behavior.
But Gigi Hadid yes. She commented on one of her many posts, defending Karefa-Johnson: “You wish you had a percentage of her intellect. You have no idea,” she wrote. “If there really is a point to any of your things, she might be the only person who could save you. As if the ‘honor’ of being invited on your show prevented someone from giving her opinion…? LOL. You are a bully and a joke.” Hadid also shared her support for Karefa-Johnson on her Instagram Story, calling her “one of the biggest voices in our industry” who could “teach that disgraceful man in more ways than he knows how.”
Others also spoke. Ye posted a message, purportedly from fashion designer Mowalola Ogunlesi, imploring her to have a “real conversation” about the T-shirt instead of attacking Karefa-Johnson.
Ye also took aim at Bernard Arneault, the man who runs LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, among other luxury brands. “Can’t we talk about more important things like how late the show was or how Bernard Arnault killed my best friend?” he wrote in a separate post, apparently referring to Virgil Abloh. “Everyone is entitled to an opinion, here is mine.” Supreme creative director Tremaine Emory shared Ye’s post on his own Instagram page, calling him out, “I have to draw a line on you using Virgil’s death in your campaign ‘ye’ is the victim in front of your gallery of sycophantic peanut algorithm,” he wrote. . Emory later claimed that Ye once told his Yeezy employees that “Virgil’s designs are a disgrace to the black community,” suggesting they weren’t as close as Ye insisted. “You tell people why you weren’t invited to Virgil’s royal funeral,” she wrote. “Keep Virgil’s name out of your mouth… Keep @gabriellak_j’s name out of your mouth,” he concluded.
As the industry reacts to Ye’s attacks on Instagram, he posted one final message to his profile: a black graphic with the words “When I said war, I meant war.”