Yeah, Kanye West thinks he wants to be a fashion intern.
As Raf Simons, with whom Kanye wants to intern, if not Louis Vuitton, states:
"I know he’s very serious about this — I don’t take it as a joke — but how can I imagine him being my intern? It’s a very extreme situation."
There is absolutely no reason to believe that Kanye can handle the heat required of a real intern in a world-class fashion house and he doesn’t have any of the advanced training and experience that interns bring into such a setting. He can’t put in the hours because he’d have to give up his performing career and I don’t think he could handle verbal abuse without firing back or breaking down.
And nobody wants an intern who’s going to bring random, unrelated fan and journalist incursions into one’s business and may later strike out in anger and attack you and your brand from a very big podium.
Kanye says he doesn’t want to be a "celebrity designer" but being a celebrity intern isn’t going to change that. Only good design that he can claim as his own will move him forward and there are far more intelligent ways for someone in his position to pursue such a path.
As Karin Nelson asks at the end of her article, "Why not take some design classes instead?"
Because that’s not part of his juvenile fantasy, Karin.
What is his recourse? Is it possible to create a valid clothing line when you have already attained celebrity status?
When I first heard of this ambition, I could understand the merit, even if it wasn’t practical. I also wonder if its really possible for him to become a serious designer. That got me to thinking: how could he validate this line? I almost feel as though no matter what he does, it won’t be taken seriously because of his celebrity status. An anonymous release to establish credibility?
Just thoughts-
Those are great questions and speculations.
If he’s serious about validating himself and about learning, I think design school is a more appropriate first step than an internship.
He could develop actual skills and, especially if he could find a way to show that he’s really done the work as opposed to hiring out, he could validate himself as an individual designer and take it from there.
On the anonymous launch, one problem is that Kanye’s already being questioned about his blogging, so he needs to take the total transparency route as part of his drive for validation.
Another problem is that internships at that level would already require you to have a formidable level of both talent and ability combined with the willingness to do the fashion equivalent of sweeping the floor and polishing the door knobs for years.
And they require a great deal of subservience from people who are nowhere near beginners.
Another big problem is that Kanye becoming an intern would create a weird power relationship between Kanye and the designer who now function as peers. How do you tell your former peer that he’s a sniveling worm that couldn’t sew a button on by hand and should be banished from France forever for wearing those ugly sneakers to a true house of fashion.
That’s just not going to work.
And I don’t think it will be up to Kanye. He’ll be told no or some compromise will be reached but this is an awkward moment for the designers.
Absolutely. I think he knows that there is no way for him to be an intern, both in terms of humility and logistics.
He should spend time studying up, but even that has its limitations. Does his jet setting and “blogging” count as study?
I say he shouldn’t waste his time trying to validate and just act; do some real research and study (if he isn’t already) and just put it out there. Its impossible to not misstep and ultimately, I think that’s what he’s trying to avoid. Thanks for the post.