Continuing to Court Controversy, Kanye West Appoints the Designer Despite Accusations of Sexual Misconduct Towards a Minor
Kanye West’s fashion brand Yeezy has announced the appointment of Gosha Rubchinskiy as Head of Design, despite the designer’s well-known allegations of sexual misconduct towards a minor. The announcement came via a tweet from Ye that read, “YEEZY welcomes Gosha Rubchinskiy as its new Head of Design today. The arrival of this legendary Russian designer at Yeezy, the pre-eminent global brand in music and fashion, is a milestone in design history.”
In addition to his own label, Rubchinskiy has collaborated with Burberry, Adidas, Dr. Martens, and more. Nonetheless, his success in the fashion world was met with controversy and condemnation in 2018 when screenshots emerged that appeared to show the designer attempting to solicit inappropriate photos from a 16-year-old model.
The designer’s brand was previously part of the Comme des Garçons portfolio, but recently announced it was moving in an independent direction.
The controversial announcement comes just over a year after Adidas severed its ties with Ye after the musician shared extremely anti-Semitic remarks online. The announcement also arrives just one day after Kanye shared the cover art for his new album in collaboration with Ty Dolla $ign, which is a direct homage to the album art for Filosofem by Burzum, a black metal band with well-known ties to Nazism.