Somewhere in London, a nightclub full of fashion graduates are working for Kanye West. The rapper has reportedly recruited Central Saint Martins students to work on his Paris fashion week collection.
Next week West is expected to make his prêt-à-porter debut, unveiling, er, something at the fashion world's most important autumn/winter event. He has already been spotted at this week's London shows, and Grazia has managed to track down his Islington fashion HQ: Turnmills, the legendary club that closed in 2008. Inside, their source claims, a team of Central Saint Martins fashion students are working under designers Louise Goldin and Dean Quinn, "with the likely consultation of Louise Wilson", head of CSM's MA fashion department.
Gold, ivory and peach are reportedly West's colours of choice, and he's into Samurai-inspired, "sporty" garments, with "luxury fabrics". "Gold chainmail, that sort of sports-luxe thang," Grazia's source explained. "[It] will be extraordinarily expensive; some of it is virtually unproduceable."
Gold chainmail aside, the trickiest aspect of the collection is apparently West's waffling. "Kanye was in fairly often; for all the fittings. [He] was very nice and polite and talked knowledgably about shape etc, but was prone to changing his mind a lot – in fact the whole process was slightly excruciating as there were SO many opinions that it took forever to get anything done."
West makes an odd perfectionist: he has released two albums in less than a year, plus more than 12 bonus tracks. But his fashion choices have not always been as well-received as his hip-hop production. Despite designing scarves for M/M and trainers for Nike and Louis Vuitton, West was snubbed at several runway shows this spring, including shows by Vuitton and Alexander McQueen.
