Kanye West slammed for ‘targeting’ Vogue fashion editor after stunt
US rapper Kanye West has been slammed for “targeting and bullying” a magazine fashion editor who criticised a controversial stunt at his Paris show.
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Kanye West has been slammed for “targeting and bullying” Vogue fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, after she criticised the “White Lives Matter” shirts at his Yeezy SZN9 presentation in Paris.
The US rapper was widely panned for donning the “disgusting” slogan – a riff on the Black Lives Matter movement that’s been claimed in recent years by the alt-right and white supremacist groups to denounce the value of black lives.
But it was Karefa-Johnson – the creative director of Garage magazine and the first black woman to style a Vogue cover in 2020 – who the 45-year-old took umbrage with, singling her out after she condemned his use of the phrase on her Instagram.
Posting a video of a model walking the runway in one of the shirts, Karefa-Johnson wrote: “Here comes the bulls**t … I’m fuming … collecting my thoughts … indefensible behaviour.”
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In a series of follow-up Instagram Stories, including screenshots of a message she’d sent to a friend about West’s use of the slogan, Karefa-Johnson wrote the rapper is “not fully aware of the difference between appropriating BLM and subverting the ‘Make America Great Again’ hat” worn by former president Donald Trump and his supporters.
While she claimed to understand West’s intention with the shirts, noting that he was “trying to illustrate a dystopian world in the future when whiteness might become extinct or at least would be in enough danger to demand defence”, the concept “didn’t land” and was “deeply offensive, violent and dangerous”.
“The danger is that, this very premise, the idea that white supremacy is in danger of extinction is what justifies mass incarceration, murder en masse, indeed even the advent of slavery.”
Karefa-Johnson added in a follow-up post that her thoughts on West’s show weren’t “some sort of distorted justification” of the shirts, noting there is “no excuse” for his behaviour.
“Please understand: It wasn’t. The T-shirts this man conceived, produced and shared with the world are pure violence,” she wrote.
“There is no excuse, there is no art here.”
West retaliated by posting multiple photos of Karefa-Johnson to his own Instagram on Tuesday, mocking her appearance to his 17.9 million followers.
“This is not a fashion person. You speak on Ye, Ima speak on you. Ask Trevor Noah,” he captioned one of the photos.
Dozens of fans and people in the industry quickly jumped to the fashion editor’s defence, including supermodel Gigi Hadid.
“You wish you had a percentage of her intellect. You have no idea haha … If there’s actually a point to any of your sh*t she might be the only person that could save you,” Hadid commented on one of West’s posts, which showed a screenshot text message advising him not to “insult” Karefa-Johnson.
“As if the ‘honour’ of being invited to your show should keep someone from giving their opinion …? Lol. You’re a bully and a joke.”
“Your [sic] not a victim, your [sic] just an insecure narcissist that’s dying for validation from the fashion world,” Supreme creative director Tremaine Emory commented.
“Kanye bullying Gabby for her OBJECTIVELY CORRECT opinions on his awful fashion show is so disgusting, petty and childish,” editor-at-large for Them magazine, Michael Cuby, wrote on Twitter.
“I am so beyond sick of all his mess. He needs help, not a Paris Fashion Week runway.”
“So repulsive to see Kanye West dedicating his time/Instagram to ripping Gabriella Karefa-Johnson to shreds considering how thoughtfully she engaged with the statement he made at his show,” Australian writer Brodie Lancaster wrote.
“She afforded him infinitely more nuance and grace than he deserved.”
In a statement shared on its social media, Vogue said it “stands with Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, our global fashion editor-at-large and longtime contributor”.
“She was personally targeted and bullied. It is unacceptable. Now, more than ever, voices like hers are needed and in a private meeting with Ye today she once again spoke her truth in a way she felt best, on her terms.”
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) October 4, 2022
The rapper then said on his own Instagram: “Anna [Wintour] had Baz Luhrmann film our meeting and we are editing tonight.
“We took pics and I was instructed to not post them. It felt like she was being used like Trevor Noah and other black people to speak on my expression,” he added.
“She expressed that her company did not instruct her to speak on my T-shirt expression.
“We apologised to each other for the way we made each other feel. We actually got along and have both experienced the fight for acceptance in a world that’s not our own.
“She disagreed, I disagreed, we disagreed.”
West’s Paris show was the latest in a long line of controversial stunts and commentary – this is, after all, the man who once declared slavery a “choice”, and in response to this week’s backlash, wrote: “Everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam. Now it’s over. You’re welcome.”
The “White Lives Matter” antic has demonstrated, however, that the fashion industry may have finally had enough; multiple audience members on Monday, including Jaden Smith, walked out when the shirts were sent down the runway.
“For reasons unknown, Ye has been given chance, after chance, after chance despite airing such controversial, violent, and right-wing views,” Emma Elizabeth Davidson wrote in a piece for Dazed.
“Last night, the excitement was palpable ahead of his first show since before the pandemic. But as stony-faced attendees filed out of the venue in disbelief, it felt like Kanye West had finally gone too far.”
Originally published as Kanye West slammed for ‘targeting’ Vogue fashion editor after stunt
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