fbpx

French Fashion House Balenciaga Terminates Contract And Association With Kanye West

French Fashion House Balenciaga Terminates Contract And Association With Kanye West

Kanye Balenciaga

Kanye West attends the WSJ. Magazine 2019 Innovator Awards at the Museum of Modern Art in New York In this Nov. 6, 2019. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Kering, the parent company of French fashion house Balenciaga, said it has cut ties with Kanye West and will no longer work with him after the hip-hop entrepreneur was called out in recent weeks for controversial words and actions made in public.

“Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist,” Kering told Women’s Wear Daily.

West collaborated with Balenciaga and Gap on his Yeezy line, branded as “Yeezy Gap (GPS) Engineered By Balenciaga”. He severed his Gap partnership in September after accusing the brand of breach of contract.

Under the Balenciaga-Gap collaboration, Gap’s Yeezy line was forecast to fetch almost $1 billion in sales in 2023.

West opened Balenciaga’s summer 2023 show at Paris Fashion Week on Oct. 2 wearing what looked like battle gear with a branded mouthguard shielding his teeth. The image has since been taken down from Balenciaga’s website.

Balenciaga head Demna Gvasalia and West reportedly had a close relationship, according to Forbes. West debuted his “White Lives Matter” shirts at Balenciaga’s Paris fashion show and delivered a monologue priding himself on being “unmanageable.” His ex-wife Kim Kardashian has been featured in many recent Balenciaga campaigns and often wore their fashions.

West’s increasingly combative attitude may result in more fallout. His 10-year relationship with Adidas is hanging in the balance and the German sportswear firm said on Oct. 6 that its partnership with the Yeezy brand is “under review,” WWD reported.

 West has publicly attacked fashion editors, former friends and luxury moguls including Bernard Arnault, WWD reported. After he was suspended from Instagram and Twitter for violating hate speech policies, West announced that was buying the conservative social media platform Parler. Parler’s CEO is George Farmer, husband of conservative activist and author Candace Owens.