Paris Fashion Week is always the most exciting week of the year in high-fashion. From new collections to favorite designers; fashionistas around the world flock to Paris to brush shoulders with celebrities and preview the newest collections. The entire week is ripe with showcases, reveals, and fun—runways featuring couture gowns from designers showcase the best of the best in design and this year was no exception. American rapper, designer, husband, and father Kanye West returned to the runways of France showcasing his 8th Yeezy collection dubbed Yeezy Season 8.
Yeezy Season 8 was a relatively small collection with about 30 pieces creating 18 total looks. In a time of Insta-influencers, Kanye has broken the mold and changed the way people dress. Remember the days when sweatpants weren’t considered high fashion or when wearing torn clothing was taboo? Well, streetwear owes a serious thank you to the 8 Yeezy collections. Kanye and his Yeezy collections have personified minimalism. His return, five years after he presented his first collection Yeezy Season 1 in New York City, gave West the comeback to Paris Fashion Week he was looking for.
The new collection focuses on eccentric shapes and is both minimalistic and futuristic sharing the signature Yeezy aesthetic that has made him competitive in the fashion market. The unique thing about Season 8 and all the previous Yeezy collections is that it is not a seasonal collection but rather a continuation of his earlier ideas and philosophies. In an interview, Kanye discussed the influence that his work has had on other design collections, especially footwear. The Yeezy shoe and Yeezy boot have become a style in and of itself and the chunky boot silhouette is unforgettable. West says, “We’ve presented so many things that have influenced color palettes and shapes of shoes, like the shape of the 350s that have become the most iconic shoe of the past 15 years. Now we have these new slides that we’re doing, and you’ll see that these shapes will start to affect other designers.”
