Image Source: 818agency.com
Based off a model's description, Kanye does not want anybody taller than him in his shows.
Okay, okay... I'll explain. About twice a year, I travel to NYFW as a free-lance backstage assistant. My roommate and I take to cold calling fashion brands to see if any designers need a hand with their shows. Since NYFW week is like ComiCon to the fashion industry, our hope is that attending it regularly will help us to network. While helping at the shows, we meet a wide range of people. One season, we became friends with a certain model who was in high demand throughout the week. He was not of age, so his partying opportunities were limited, and a few nights out of the week, he hung out with us, ate pizza and told us about the events of the day. One evening in particular, he explained that he had gotten nixed from the Yeezy show.
Image Source: betches.com
You may be familiar with the instructional guildlines for models at the Yeezy (photo above), Season 3 show. It made headlines because of how insanely specific and somewhat confusing it was.
Most men's fashion shows exclusively cast models who are between 5'11"-6'2". Well, based on our model friend's description, he stood in front of Kanye at the casting who told him he was too tall... To which he responded, "Do you want my little brother or something?"
Needless to say, his response didn't turn things around, and he didn't get the job. People have speculated that Kanye wanted most of the models to be shorter than him so that he could be the tallest of the group. This sounds perfectly plausible since he has been known to be 'larger than life'.
Ideally, we would live in a fashion world that accepted and promoted diversity in every way, so I was left asking myself if this story made me mad or glad. It would mean giving new opportunity to models who typically would be turned away, but yet, still, a group is being discriminated against. Huh.
