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"FacebookPinterestFacebookPinterest\n\nKanye West debuted the next lineup of his ongoing, Internet-breaking collaboration with French brand A.P.C. today and this season's offering of parka-inspired coats, streamlined cargo pants, and easy knits clearly took his basics-centered first outing to the next level. As collaborator and menswear mentor Jean Touitou looked on, West walked international editors, world famous athletes and some bold-faced names through his collection, considerately pointing out details like the adjustable tabs for tapering moto-inspired trousers or the contrast white hem of a denim work shirt that would make for an ace street style shot.\n\nThe nearly-fifteen minute presentation showed a side of West the mass media and even diehard fans may not be used to: a thoughtful artist aware of his place in the pop culture pantheon, and how that doesn't always make for an easy transition into a new field like fashion. Here are the sixteen things we learned about West today in his own words, from finding inspiration in the A.P.C. archives, to his hesitation towards leopard print, and why designing menswear makes him produce better music.\n\n\n\nDesigning clothes and making music aren't mutually exclusive:\n\n\"What people don't realize is, actually, my music is better when I'm allowed to eat my food and drink at the same time. I can walk places quicker when I'm allowed to use my right leg and my left leg. It's like: 'You make so much off of your left leg, you're the best left-legged person! You could never use your right leg, why would you wanna do that?'\"\n\nKanye knew what he was doing last year:\n\n\"In 2013 I decided just to turn up. I said, you know, I tried to approach it in a tasteful way, let me try approaching it in a very non-tasteful way\u2014in a very 'fuck the world' type way, where all of this is a dream, and instead of it being a nightmare or frustrated expression of what I can't get out, let me see if I can get people to understand this.\"\n\nJean Touitou helped Kanye hone his aesthetic:\n\n\"Jean has basically taught me how to drive on the right side of the street, 'cause it's like I started off in a Lamborghini drunk-driving down the middle of Paris and shit and he's like 'Okay now, let me show you the steps to take.'\"\n\nKanye and Jean both have input on the line:\n\n\"Jean has given me the opportunity to take his experience, his taste level\u2014because you have to take a good part. Even if we don't agree on things sometimes, you know, his level of restraint and my level of turn up, or sometimes he wants to turn up. Sometimes he'll make like, a leopard T-shirt and be like 'we should do this leopard T-shirt!' ...I don't know if I wanna be the black guy that did the leopard T-shirt. \"\n\nKanye's fashion education came from the Internet and Street Style:\n\n\"I wanted to go to Central Saint Martins, but Louise Goldin said that I was too famous. So I basically had to learn my clothes through Style.com, through like Scott [Schuman] The Sartorialist, Tommy Ton, and dudes shopping. And luckily, I was rich enough to make mistakes and learn by like just being a fashion victim\u2014which I definitely have been a fashion victim\u2014and to flip it from fashion victim to maybe a fashion icon, to actually a person who can give an opinion, and that's what I'm in the process of doing. So I just want everyone to be patient with me as we go on this journey.\"\n\nThis season, Kanye's into monochromatic rigs:\n\n\"So I'm into this monochromatic thing. I'm always happy when I have a monochromatic outfit that isn't black, and that usually takes like seven years' worth of shopping to get right. You'll have like these green pants you got in Japan and this one shirt that you got on tour in Seattle in a thrift store, and this one jacket.\"\n\nKanye's rebellious streak dates back to his pre-music, art school roots:\n\n\"My background is art, I got a scholarship to the American Academy of Art--I have to say a super like pretentious snobby thing in this situation: I've been in art school since I was five, and I got scholarships to the American Academy of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. So I went to the American Academy of Art and guess what? I got in trouble because someone said my work was too controversial. I don't know where they would have got that from.\"\n\nWest doesn't always heed the advice he's given:\n\n\"With this [collection] I wanted to use soft fabrics. People always said I should have always done this, and I hate the fact that I'm actually doing it because I never wanna fucking listen to anything someone says.\"\n\nKanye designs things he'd be excited to wear himself:\n\n\"This sweater is dope as fuck. That's like some shit I would wear to the airport.\"\n\nKanye draws inspiration from Touitou's A.P.C. archive:\n\n\"These pants I got from Jean's archives. These are like motorcycle pants, and if you get up close you can see it's like wad cotton and this suede, which we made thicker so it'd hold the pants. I'm always trying to get a little more creases in this area, but most people when they do cargos, they don't know. I always have to re-tailor shit because it's really wide here and I have to slim it out here. What I did was give you the option, these buttons you can unbutton to make it wider if you like. That's just like details that are very swagged out.\"\n\nDesigning clothes makes Kanye feel the same rush as any creative endeavor:\n\n\"That tone of those off-blues just make me really fucking happy, the same as when I used to draw, or do ink, or oil painting, or do water colors, or work on video games, or sonically put together these samples. I just have a passion for putting the fabrics together. Remember how I said the whole Style.com thing? I would picture&amp;amp;#xC2; dudes in Milan being shot by Tommy Ton.\"\n\nKanye is excited at the chance to explain his vision for the collaboration\n\n\"In the first collaboration we did a white T-shirt called the Hip-Hop T-Shirt, and it was fun seeing this come together and have a real expression. I think like, this moment right here is maybe the first time where people can see like 'oh that's his opinion.'\"\n\nKanye knows his rap career made his current creative path possible\n\n\"I'm a rapper, and that's my main profession that allows me to attempt to\u2014but maybe fail at\u2014making clothes, and also to communicate to editors at&amp;amp;#xC2; GQ, or to directors like Wes Anderson\u2014name drop, name drop!\"\n\nIt might be unlawful to wear Kanye's mask-like accessories in Paris\n\n\"I heard out here it's illegal to wear masks, so if the cops caught you just tell them you're wearing a scarf and shit.\"\n\nDespite his standout style, west favors more classic menswear pieces:\n\n\"I'm better at like elegance and fabrication. Especially the next seasons when I get into leather\u2014I just like nice shit. And more timeless, less trendy, because it's like a thing that they almost want from you as a rapper\u2014like I said in the song 'On Sight:' 'he'll give us what we need / it may not be what we want.' And I'd rather make a contribution. \"\n\nKanye knows his passion is a double edged sword:\n\n\"I feel like when I'm just talking it just sounds like noise, or it sounds like somebody dreaming out loud. It sounds like when I was trying to get a record deal and I had 'Jesus Walks' and I'm jumping up and down on a table like 'Yo! Please give me a shot!' and being bod in by your own success, being a victim of your own success.\"\n\nSee the entire A.P.C. Kanye Fall-Winter 2014 collection.\n\nSee the entire A.P.C. Fall-Winter 2014 collection."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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