Kanye faces CFDA backlash over NYFW show date

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Feb 3, 2017

Kanye West is receiving a flurry of backlash after releasing the time, date, and location of his Yeezy Season 5 show on Tuesday. For the third season in a row, West has scheduled his show outside CFDA’s schedule, causing an overlap of shows.

West’s Yeezy show, currently set to take place on February 15th, will currently take place at the same time as the Marchesa and Assembly shows. West's current self-appointed time slot may cause issues to any show following West's, as the rapper's shows have lasted several hours in the past - considerably longer than the fifteen minute runway shows most brands host.

Considering the 300 shows the CFDA has to schedule in such a limited number of days, it is accepted that several shows will overlap each season. When the CFDA creates the schedule, they choose specifically what show will take place when to ensure that buyers and press can attend the most number of shows possible to give designers the most exposure possible.

Steven Kolb, president and chief executive officer of the CFDA, told the press Thursday morning that West’s behavior is inexcusable, and ‘should not be tolerated by the industry’. As of right now, the CFDA refuses to list Kanye West on the schedule but states that they would be willing to work with West on finding an appropriate time slot for his presentation.

This is not the first year West has purposely ignored the CFDA’s scheduling procedures. Last season, West dragged the fashion flock out to Roosevelt Island, where both industry insiders and models had to sit in the sweltering sun all afternoon. The six hour spectacle took buyers and press away from the Parsons MFA, R13 and Whit shows.

And for not much return – the collection was panned by the industry as being ‘boring’ (by The New York Times' Vanessa Friedman) and ‘a total failure’ (by Esquire Magazine).