Balenciaga Cuts Ties With Kanye, ADL Urges Adidas To Drop Him
Balenciaga has severed ties with Kanye West. According to Women’s Wear Daily, Kering, the French fashion house’s parent company, has released a statement saying, “Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.” No other further details were added to the statement.
The French fashion house has been distancing itself from Kanye due to his recent remarks on Drink Champs where he falsely claimed George Floyd died due to fentanyl because the cop’s knee wasn’t “on his neck like that.” Per Rolling Stone, in a since-deleted Instagram post on Oct. 17, Balenciaga issued a statement, per the outlet. “West’s runway look from Balenciaga’s Spring 2023 show at Paris Fashion Week had been deleted from Vogue Runway, as well as the Balenciaga website.”
Additionally, they also “removed a section on its website dedicated to the three Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga collaborations, which launched earlier this year. Those items were also no longer available on other online retailers.”
The fashion house’s creative director Demna Gvasalia and Ye have had a relationship since 2014. The following year the company was brought on to engineer Kanye’s Gap collection.
The Anti-Defamation League is also trying to convince Adidas to drop Kanye as a collaborator due to his racist comments over the past couple of weeks.
“In light of Kanye West’s increasingly strident antisemitic remarks over the past few weeks, we were disturbed to learn that Adidas plans to continue to release new products from his Yeezy brand without any seeming acknowledgment of the controversy surrounding his most recent remarks,” the ADL letter reads per CNN. “We urge Adidas to reconsider supporting the Ye product line and to issue a statement making clear that the Adidas company and community has no tolerance whatsoever for antisemitism.”
Adidas announced its partnership with West in 2013. In June 2016, Adidas and West announced they had extended their partnership, calling it a “Yeezy-branded entity creating footwear, apparel and accessories for all genders across street and sport,” per Yahoo Sports.
But as of late, the rapper has blasted the global shoe brand on social media for stealing his designs. Earlier this month, Adidas issued a statement about the current status of their relationship with Ye.
“After repeated efforts to privately resolve the situation, we have taken the decision to place the partnership under review. We will continue to co-manage the current product during this period,” the company said in a statement per CNBC.
Adidas has not responded to ADL’s letter as of yet.
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