Kanye West committed himself to tackling the homeless crisis in Los Angeles late last year, meeting with city leaders and charity organizations to discuss ideas and formulate a plan to solve the growing problem.
The first step of Kanye’s blueprint was made public on Thursday (January 27), with TMZ reporting the Chicago rap icon is planning a major fashion project that will provide funds and opportunities for the city’s homeless population.
Ye’s billion-dollar Yeezy company is joining forces with L.A.-based streetwear brand Skid Row Fashion Week for a clothing collaboration and fashion show, employing homeless people to manufacture and model the clothes on the runway.
Skid Row Fashion Week already donates a portion of its sales to those living on Skid Row and hires homeless people at its factory. 100% of the profits from the Yeezy collaboration will go toward helping those living rough while providing more employment opportunities.
David Sabastian, the founder of Skid Row Fashion Week, says the seed of the idea was planted earlier this month when he met with Kanye West while he was working on Donda 2 in L.A.’s Arts District, not far from Skid Row.
The Yeezy x Skid Row Fashion Week collaboration is set to drop on February 22, although the collection has yet to be revealed. Various posts on Sabastian’s Instagram show graphics combining Kanye’s blue Yeezy Gap logo with SRFW silhouettes.
According to TMZ, the duo want to incorporate items found on Skid Row into the collection, with the idea of a trash bag puffer jacket being explored.
This isn’t the only fashion project Kanye West is working on. Earlier this month, the 44-year-old billionaire announced a blockbuster partnership between Yeezy, Gap and Balenciaga.
Officially known as Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga, the first collection is expected to arrive in June, followed by another drop later this year.
Kanye West Invites Homeless Man Into Studio After Hearing Him Rap
“It is a vision come true to work with Gap and Demna, the creative director of Balenciaga, to make incredible product available to everyone at all times,” Kanye said in a statement to Vogue.
Publicity stunt. The richest 1% people in the world could solve poverty and homelessness worldwide and still be richer than everyone else. But that wouldn’t help them promote their brands.
helpin the homeless by selling 3dolla solid hoodies for 80 than having a 6 week wait for em, ye by hiself if a billionaire could buy everyone on skid row a container home or offer an acre on his land somewhere, these folks all for show
Skid Row is now way more a problem of drugs and mental health than of housing. Just because kanye is bipolar and has a history of alcohol addiction doesn’t mean he can relate to the massive desperation of the people of Skid Row. It’s really a whole different world out there, way past anything Kanye could say to them should he choose to spend time listening to them, which one can’t even imagine he will as he can’t stand anyone who doesn’t think like him. These people don’t need money, they need to start caring about their lives again and Kanye can’t give them that. Not just because to achieve that, one needs to have self respect again, and Kanye having none can’t help them with that, this guy acts like a child on any given situation except when it comes to making money, but because to get out of a situation such as a daily life on Ski Row, one needs to be helped not just to get out but to stay out and to want to stay out, and that takes a long support, and Kanye doesn’t seem to have more than a few seconds of patience for frustrating things. And trying to help the people of Skid Row is the most frustrating thing ever. So he seems the least qualified person to help them. Kanye shows through his recent actions that all he cares about now in life is being rich and being loved for the power that it gives him, and that power can only buy him people who can be bought, and the Skid Row people couldn’t care less about that…
Why would anyone read a comment this long….
True, I forgot that this is 2022 and that for some people reading for real has become a complicated task 🙂
I read it, it wasn’t complicated at all,homie spitting facts
I think that Kanye probably truly wants to help, but like other ppl said, selling hoodies ain’t gonna fix much.
Homelessness should be made illegal. That’s the only way to fix the problem, and to get people off the street. I’m not suggesting jailing someone for being broke, but if you put them in shelters or in small ‘tiny houses’ and placed them in job training facilities, they’d be better off. Just dumping money at the homeless doesn’t do much. If you travel to developing nations that are far more poor than America like Cambodia, Mexico, or Thailand you rarely see any homeless at all, because it’s illegal. This forces people to get their sh1t together, or to reach out to family for help until they find a job.
Why not give some of his MILLIONS away to the homeless than and just live on $60,000 a year like most Americans have to do? He’s a joke.