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Well, the Kanye West spring 2012 debut womenswear fashion show happened last night. And, critics agree, it was ugly—no, we're not just being gratuitously mean, check out the gallery of 24 looks after the jump to see for yourself.
The Telegraph's fashion editor Lisa Armstrong likens the show to an unpleasant, claustrophobic medical procedure:
Kanye West's fashion debut was like being subjected to an hour long MRI scan—but not as much fun. Those blanked-out books turned out to be a depressingly apt metaphor for this entire stupendously vacuous enterprise. Even those actresses turned designers, Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen sisters struggled to look engaged.We've got plenty more critical assessments from show attendees and fashion critics after the jump—and even one favorable review from a source we're going to be reading with a serious heaping dose of salt from now on. But, all in all, we're pretty sure that general sentiment about West's debut collection can be summed up in this tweet by Style.com contributor Meenal Mistry:
Via @meenalmistry
The New York TImes' Eric Wilson writes:
What Mr. West eventually showed was confusing as well... There was one good-looking pair of color-blocked pants in blue and coral, but it was obvious that most of the clothes suffered from a poor fit.The Wall Street Journal seemed flabbergasted:
The only thing more painful than witnessing the dress was watching the model pitch down the runway in shoes so ill-fitting that her spike heels were bending at angles. "I feel sorry. Why not take that look out?" asked one cringing magazine editor.Zippers were unzipped. Snakeskin pants were metallic silver. There was a very large and furry fur backpack. For an arctic Spring/Summer 2012. Necklines plunged so precariously that they seemed a personal shout-out to J-Lo. Heavy beading – including one breastplate of a top – recalled the Flintstones. Strips of crocodile hung without reason from a leather skirt. There were lots and lots of tight leather pants.
From Elle UK's correspondent Carrie Gorman:
Navy leather jackets and snake insert skirts looked too cumbersome for these professionals to pull off. Zips tracked everything, scissoring trousers in to three parts, left too open for comfort up the back of a ribbed LBD and slashing ribbed dresses to within a inch of its existence. Fur was prevalent and unapologetic, used needlessly as a rucksack as if for the sole purpose of showing off wealth.Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen writes:
It seemed that he might have rushed to put on this show without working out how to cut and merchandise the collection.The AP disagrees, though, claiming West's collection was better than almost all of what they'd seen in the first five days of Paris fashion week—
But West proved nay-sayers wrong with his slick collection of sexy, hard-edged looks that were hands-down better - in terms of design and construction - than much of what's been shown during the first five days of Paris' spring-summer 2012 ready-to-wear collections.Really, AP? You think Kanye's collection was better than Dries Van Noten, Damir Doma, Limi Feu, Nicolas Andreas Taralis, Guy Laroche, Gareth Pugh, Rochas, Rue du Mail, Bernhard Willhelm, Mugler (okay, we believe it may have been on par with the Mugler not-that-goodness), Balenciaga, Manish Arora, Ann Demeulemeester, Balmain, Lutz, Rick Owens, Barbara Bui, Nina Ricci, AF Vandevorst, Roland Mouret, Hussein Chalayan, Gaspard Yurkievich, Anne Valerie Hash, Dior, Isabel Marant, Maison Martin Margiela, Lanvin, Vivienne Westwood, Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe, Haider Ackermann, Tsumori Chisato, Martin Grant, Viktor & Rolf, Cacharel, Sonia Rykiel, Comme des Garcons, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Loewe? Okay, AP.
· All Kanye West coverage [Racked]