Fashion house Balenciaga cuts ties with Kanye West — but not out of hate.
The brand’s former creative director, Richard Buckley, called West a “scum” who “is always looking for the next story.” West and Balenciaga, which was founded by Antonio Marciel, is still working on a project together, according to an interview with the brand’s senior vice president of global marketing, Jean-Charles de Barros, on Thursday.
“Richard is a great man, an incredible creative, and an extremely talented designer,” de Barros said.
“And we love him and respect him, because he helped open the doors for us to have a creative dialogue with Kanye, and he remains a valued employee.”
West and Balenciaga have worked together before. But in 2015, West launched his own fashion label and designed clothes for the rapper’s fashion show for the MTV Video Music Awards. West has since been named as a member of Balenciaga’s board of directors and has been named to the group’s advisory board.
Balenciaga’s relationship with West took a turn for the worse last October after rumors of a meeting between West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, made rounds online. The fashion house issued a statement and said that it had never met West and was not aware of any plans for a meeting.
When West announced his own fashion line called “Ye,” he was joined by other celebrities like Kanye West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, rapper Future, and producer Kid Cudi.
Last month, Forbes released its annual list of “most influential fashion and lifestyle CEOs” and named Balenciaga to the list of top 10 fashion brands.
“Our collaboration with Balenciaga is in the design process currently, so we will share more in due course,” said West on Tuesday.
“It’s not easy, you know … the process of collaboration with Balenciaga is always challenging, but we’re excited about this new creative relationship, and want to keep it as authentic and fresh as possible.”