This originally appeared Show memo, GQ staffer Samuel Hein’s fashion week newsletter. If you want to see more articles like this, subscribe by clicking the link above.
Yesterday, the fashion supernova known as Yeezy Gap officially burned down. In a memo to employees, Gap CEO Mark Breitbard said the brand had “scaled back” its partnership with Kanye West after Ye’s attorney sent Gap a termination notice earlier in the day. According to the notice, Ye alleges breach of contract, after a tumultuous few weeks of demanding that Gap launch its flagship product into its outlets and stock Yeezy Gap in all its stores. claimed a violation. In a memo to employees, Breitbard wrote: ”
Ironically, at the same time Ye’s lawyers were working to get him out of his Gap contract, Ye was busy promoting the upcoming Yeezy Gap release. I was in the shooting cube.
The so-called “Selfie Cube” is the site where the latest (and possibly last) Yeezy Gap campaign is embodied. Earlier this week, a downtown model and art-world-adjacent micro-his influencer (the type who can always secure a table for Lucien) received a DM from a young Yeezy Gap employee asking her to join a photo shoot. Rumors began to circulate that they were inviting. New “Yzy Shdz”. You’ve probably already seen the metallic shield-like sunglasses on Instagram, shades similar to OSHA-approved eyewear from outer space. Bald Candice Swanepoel.
The latest push for the Shdz rollout seems to be focused on underground creatives living in downtown NYC. According to two such participants, those who accepted the DM invitation were given the time and the address of a West Village photo studio.Upon arrival, they were invited to style themselves in sunglasses and his Yeezy Gap outfit in dark colors, and then Send to Selfie Cube—A silver box in the center of the room. I was given an iPad inside and took as many selfies as I wanted for about 30 minutes. Ye reviewed the flicks and picked his favorite, according to the employee who manages the Cube. Just this past Tuesday, Ye was personally inviting people to jump into the Cube (like Anna’s Winter and Chris Rock) during her few appearances at New York Fashion Week.
Yzy Shds’ work speaks volumes about Ye’s great instincts for how to leverage social media to achieve your creative goals. He wants to create a product for everyone, and designing campaigns featuring scene stars who presumably have a common following makes the idea feel real, if not real. This is an approach that reflects his Demna’s lasting influence on Ye’s process. Remember when Balenciaga’s Instagram turned into a conceptual art project? , said that most other models were low-key, cool kids who didn’t shout “influencers.” (The gig was unpaid, and attendees signed his NDA.) It also represents the conflicting goals of Ye’s grand vision and obsession with details. Days before publicly denouncing Gap on CNBC, he was flipping through his iPad selfies taken by a model with thousands of Instagram followers…for Gap.
In the wake of Ye and Gap’s split, The Times report Continue to sell Yeezy Gap products that have already been branded. It’s unclear if Shdz will be included in the product, or if Ye intends to take the design and campaign into an independent venture. (Yeezy Gap representatives did not immediately return requests for comment. And the participants I spoke with had not yet received their Ye-approved selfie.