Two fashion designers have come forward, accusing Kanye West of “borrowing” their ideas for his Yeezy apparel without giving either of them any credit or compensation. According to Rolling Stone, Francisco Mateo Baca claims that the famous wraparound YZY SHDZ which plenty of celebrities have been wearing in the past few weeks, allegedly derived from a sample he had previously shared online.
Baca said he was puzzled when he started seeing the shades being worn by celebrities such as Lil Uzi Vert, Kim Kardashian, and Steve Lacy — particularly as he had just recently been asked to attend a creative meeting at the Yeezy headquarters in Los Angeles. “I’m talking to their creatives and stuff and they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, this is nice. We love this.’ They were telling me, ‘Yeah, Ye’s going to love this.’ So I was like, ‘All right, cool.’ And then, next thing I know, I see pictures of my glasses design on social media.”
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Another fashion brand named Legendary6ix has also come forward, making similar accusations against West, recalling how they had been invited to a Donda event held in Chicago back in May where 200 hats of their hats were used during a performance. Following the show, West and his team were said to have been interested in working on a collaboration together, prompting the Harlem-based fashion company and Yeezy to exchange ideas on their potential partnership. However, soon after the conversations stopped did Legendary6ix find Yeezy using hats with flames on the brim — a signature style of theirs — as part of the first Yeezy and Gap collab.
“Instead of doing it with us he stole our idea and made his own hat,” the company said in an Instagram post. Baca told Rolling Stone that it wasn’t long before he and Legendary6ix got in contact, realizing that they both had an unpleasant experience at giving away their ideas to the Yeezy brand, thinking it was going to lead to an actual alliance.
adidas has announced that its Yeezy partnership with Kanye West is “under review.”
Ye says adidas “stole my designs.” pic.twitter.com/taZZeMClrv
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) October 6, 2022
Baca stressed that for small fashion brands, it’s evidently harder to copyright ideas — particularly once a household name as big as Yeezy has already passed it off as their own. “I think a lot of these people were suffering in silence,” he added. “Because nobody really wants to go up against Ye.”