Ad4604 module assessment

The Yeezy Effect

By Charles Cockayne

A huge trend that has blown up in the past two years is that of streetwear. This has changed the shape of fashion and how brands design their clothes. Recently the biggest trend is that of distressed, oversized, minimalistic, and in neutral palette coloured clothing. This apparel is then accompanied with technical knitted trainers and military boots. The prime example of this, and the catalyst of this trend, is that of Kanye West’s Yeezy label. The fashion label is the first fashion design venture for rapper and style icon Kanye West, and it debuted February 2015, at New York fashion week and was named as ‘Yeezy Season 1’; showcasing a Fall/Winter 2015 collection of men’s and women’s apparel and shoes. There have been four ‘Yeezy Seasons’ and these have seen a major exhibition at every fashion week since its debut.

Source 1, Yeezy Season 3

Source 2, Yeezy Season 1

The Yeezy Effect

Source 5, Yeezy Season 3

Source 3, Yeezy Season 1

Source 4, Yeezy Season 2

Source 6, Yeezy Season 2

The Yeezy Effect

The lines are always very similar, made up of apparel, mostly distressed, oversized, minimalistic, and in neutral palette colours.

The clothing of ‘YeezySeason 1’ was made in collaboration with Adidas, however after that the sportswear company only continued to make the 750 and 350 Boost within the future lines.

Source 7, Yeezy Season 3 The target audience for this trend is for those who sit within Source 8, Yeezy Season 1 generation Y and Z. This can be demonstrated by the photos of the people wearing the clothing. However, for the likes of the Yeezy label, the generations Y and Z cant afford the clothing (This will be explained later in the report.) maybe the older ages within the generation Y migh be able to afford it but thats a possibility.

Source 9, Yeezy Season 2 Source 10, Yeezy Season 1

The Yeezy Effect

wearing the trainers prior to release. (See source 13, picturing, from left to right, 2-Chainz, Big Sean, Kanye West and Travis Scott, and source 14 for the Jenner-Kardashian family members all wearing Yeezy

The men and women’s trainers are made up of three silhouettes, a boot footwear.). named as a ‘Military Boot’, a high-top trainer known as the ‘750 Boost’ The brand itself relies mostly on that of word of mouth, and hype durand lastly a low trainer named the ‘350 Boost’. Arguably these three

examples of footwear do the best out of the entire lines. The shoes sell out within seconds of release:

“Independent Stores- 15 to 30 seconds.” (Yeezys for all) “Worldwide stores- 30 to 90 seconds.” (Yeezys for all)

ing a release. There is no official Yeezy Instagram account on Insta-

gram, Twitter on Facebook, however if you search ‘Yeezy’ on either of

the above social media sites, they will show an array of pictures people have taken themselves and uploaded.

“Adidas- 30 to 60 minutes. This is due to their queuing system.” (Yeezys for all) Adidas’ main website had to bring in a new online queueing

system as the site use to crash with overwhelming numbers of people viewing the website. (See source 11 and 12 for the Yeezy 350 in the

catwalk.) Others waited in “hours-long lines outside of Adidas stores

from London to Chicago to get the sneakers.” (Business Insider). The

shoes are further promoted through celebrities, and big public figures

with big followings whether that be on social media, fans or paparazzi, Source 11, Yeezy Season 3

Source 12, Yeezy Season 4

Source 14

Source 13

The Yeezy Effect

reason of high prices.) by offering very similar items at much lower prices. “Zara, Topshop and Forever 21” (Daily Mail) all producing items very like that of Kanye’s lines. Many “fashion fans” HypeBeast further reported on the over shadowed clothing line in Daily Mail) accused the above three brands for “copying” and even comparison to the shoes. The report tells of how the clothing has “bootlegging” (Daily Mail) the designer brand. The three “staggering price points” for “decidedly deconstructed garbs”. high-street stores stated above however charge for their pieces The article further went to highlight how huge amounts of pieces for as little as “£19” (Daily Mail), a huge difference from a weighty have gone into sale, struggling to sell at full price. One example is price tag of around “$195” (HighsNobiety). The similarities are way the “Undestroyed Sweater priced “from $1,560 USD to 1,092 USD” to alike for coincidence, therefore proving that the Yeezy label has (HypeBeast). (See source 15 for examples of prices for Yeezy influenced a trickle-down effect on the fashion world, especially on T-shirts.) the high-street. Trickle-down effect applies to designer fashion that only the wealthy can afford. Over time, the designs trickle-down to Controversy sparked when high-street brands/stores decided to the high-street. capitalize on the lack of Yeezy apparel purchases (For the believed

Source 15 Source 16, Zara

The Yeezy Effect

Source 17, Zara

Source 19, Zara

Source 18,

Yeezy Season 2

Source 20, Yeezy Season 1