Yeezy Gap is finally hitting stores — is it a corporate-creative cautionary tale, or a new model for fashion to come?
For anyone following the collaboration since its buzzy birth more than two years ago, a line outside the Gap in Times Square last week was a major development: it was the first time customers would be able to see and touch the clothes inside a store — albeit not hung from racks or folded on shelves, but piled into those huge bags.
In the first 18 months of the 10-year deal, which was announced in June 2020, the partnership between the artist formerly known as Kanye West (now simply Ye) and the giant American brand yielded just two products, both sold only online. It wasn’t until a third party, Balenciaga, entered the collaboration that a full Yeezy Gap collection was finally released this year (though it was still relatively small, with 36 styles in total unveiled in May). This weekend, a portion of the collection was rolled out in about 50 stores nationwide, in cities including Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco: a selection of eight styles, with more promised later in the year.
It is a milestone in the much-watched collaboration, but one that raises the question: What took so long?
We took a look inside the making of Yeezy Gap. Head to the link in bio to read the story from @vvfriedman, @jtes and @whatsupna. Photos by @hiroko.masuike and via Gap.
