Kanye West dropped by Balenciaga
By Ramishah Maruf, CNN Business
Fashion powerhouse Balenciaga has officially severed ties with Kanye West following a series of antisemitic posts and other controversial comments from the rapper, according to a report from Women’s Wear Daily citing a statement from Balenciaga’s parent company.
“Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist,” Kering, Balenciaga’s parent company, said in a statement to WWD. Kering did not respond to CNN Business’ requests for comment.
West, who legally changed his name to Ye, collaborated with Balenciaga for a wildly popular Yeezy Gap line earlier this year. Gap first announced its 10-year deal with Ye for the Yeezy Gap brand in June 2020, but West said last month he was ending his partnership with the Gap because of “substantial noncompliance.”
In an internal company email, Mark Breitbard, president and CEO of Gap Brand, said it decided to “wind down the partnership” because their “vision is not aligned.”
Adidas also said it is reviewing its partnership with West after an increasingly tense relationship grew between the two.
The New York Times reported that West and Balenciaga’s relationship has been a close one and that he and creative director Demna Gvasalia text “several times a day.” But Gvasalia and Cédric Charbit, Balenciaga’s chief executive, reportedly attended the ill-fated Paris fashion show where West wore one of his controversial line of “White Lives Matter” shirts.
Ye’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were restricted earlier this month for violating policies for posts containing antisemitic content.
In a now-deleted tweet, West said he was “going death con 3 [sic] On JEWISH PEOPLE,” according to Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine records pulled by CNN.
Recently, Ye announced plans to acquire Parler, a far-right social platform, to prevent having “to fear being removed from social media again.”
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