Balenciaga Officially Cuts Ties With Kanye West

Balenciaga and Kanye have a long relationship. Most recently, they collaborated on the wildly successful Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga line. Balenciaga has now ended its relationship with Ye.

Balenciaga has officially severed ties with artist Kanye West as a result of his abusive and antisemitic comments. It was mentioned by the parent business of the fashion label, Kering, in a statement to WWD. Kering stated that Balenciaga “Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.”

After his divisive appearance on the podcast Drink Champs, which was released last week, Balenciaga started to distance itself from West. In addition to making other anti-Semitic slurs, he erroneously asserted that George Floyd was not murdered but rather died from fentanyl. Both Vogue Runway and the Balenciaga website had removed Ye’s runway look from Paris Fashion Week.

West has lost one of his oldest and closest business partners in the high-end fashion industry with the breakup of Balenciaga. A part of the company’s website devoted to the three Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga collaborations was also taken down, according to Balenciaga. Additionally, other internet stores no longer carried those goods.

As part of the ultimately unsuccessful partnership between the brand and the Gap, Balenciaga joined forces with Yeezy. Despite the fact that West stopped his collaboration with Gap in September, a number of items from the Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga line were made available. Thanks to Ye’s antics,  this was not meant to last long.

Balenciaga and Ye have a long history together. It’s largely because West and Demna Gvasalia, the fashion house’s creative director, has a long-standing friendship. However, no strong bonds can save this partnership anymore.

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