Kanye lost in the jungle

"Remember those hyenas we saw fighting over the warthog carcass? Well, I'll be the warthog." Love that quote from Cady in 'Mean Girls' and so apt at the moment for poor old Kanye West and his debut womenswear collection in Paris this season. It has been called "rap with a capital-C" by the new Fashion Director of the Telegraph, Lisa Armstrong and Suzy Menkes of The New York Times stated that "a celebrity tag and a lively audience filled with music-business friends does not cut it in Paris" and indeed, it hasn't. The consensus seems to be unanimous that the collection is a failure with critics the globe over tearing shreds off his fashion carcass. But really, it would be hard to see how anyone could find an original, applaudable idea within the range.

It is an absurd and seasonally inappropriate beast of a collection featuring too much fur, coats and knits for a Spring/Summer offering. The silhouette varies wildly from body-con dresses, to seventies lounge, to Balmain-esque power shoulders and tailored trousers. The colour palette is that of slightly mismatched neutrals with the occasional shot of bright primary or metallics, leaving it a little visually jarring and uncomfortable. “I had a lot of ideas about colors and shapes I wanted to express …" said Kanye, but that's still no excuse to include ALL of them. There just doesn't seem to be a consistent idea running through the collection in any way, or any clear idea really, except for that of derivative rehashing of other designers' work. 

The presentation was not only offensive to those who had to sit through it, but has also rubbed C-rap in the faces of all those fresh and talented designers out there struggling to get noticed on the main stage of fashion as well as the established designers who are already showing at Paris Fashion Week. The best metaphor I can think of for the collection is the baboon-bottomed trousers Kanye chose to send down the Catwalk as his final look - embarrassing and offensive. With the abundance of crazy fur, the C-rap flinging,  baboon bottoms and hyenas circling it seems like the fashion jungle has decreed Kanye its new jester, not its king.

Check out this video of the finale and see what you think.