Kanye West: ‘Sweatshirts Are F**king Important’

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Kanye West's developed a habit of following up his Yeezy shows with epic interviews with Dirk Standen. Last year it was for Style.com, and this year Vanity Fair landed the wide-ranging Q&A, which addresses everything from the future of Yeezy to Kanye's place in fashion to his 2020 presidential campaign. One subject Standen doesn't ask about, however, is Cathy Horyn's slam of a review of Yeezy Season 2. The whole thing is definitely worth a read, but as before, here are 10 of Kanye's best quotes.

The fact that the models were grouped by their skin tone wasn't a political statement. "It had nothing to do with race. It was only colors of human beings and the way these palettes of people work together and really just stressing the importance of color, the importance of that to our sanity, these Zen, monochrome palettes."

Kanye believes strongly in athleisure. "I think people just wear yoga pants and sweatshirts, and I wanted to make the most beautiful version of that possible."

He will one day open multiple Yeezy stores: "I can smell the store right now. I can see the wood in my head, this beat-up wood. I can feel the energy of the space. I’ve already embraced the moment of when I finally get to have my own store, which was always a dream of mine. So even though we do really amazing sales online, my dream is just to have my own store. And to have multiples of it."

He seems very inspired by his daughter North West. Kanye compared his growth as a designer to Northie: "But I almost feel I’m growing just like my daughter. I hear my daughter start to say exactly what she wants and to finish sentences and I think it’s like that. Like, maybe I got to finish a couple more sentences in the second one than in the first one." He also said in terms of inspiration: "I was just wanting the colors to fit together in this way, like where my daughter takes the four Play-Dohs and starts to blend them all up together."

Kanye remains obsessed with the Gap. He mentioned Gap twice in the interview, and shouts out J.Crew CEO Mickey Drexler too. "I say things like I want to be creative director for the Gap, but I just got to give credit to the people who do creative direction at the Gap. I’ve got to give super-props to Mickey Drexler. I know he’s not at the Gap anymore. That’s a talent."

Kanye confirms that his clothing collection is no longer with Adidas: "Yeah, we do the shoes with Adidas and this past season we just did apparel on our own out of Calabasas with a small team traveling to the dye houses and making the patterns and just working 30 hours a day against all odds."

He's "definitely" thinking about running for President in 2020. "It wasn’t like, Oh, let’s go rent some jet skis in Hawaii. No, the exact opposite. I sit in clubs and I’m like, Wow, I’ve got five years before I go and run for office and I’ve got a lot of research to do, I’ve got a lot of growing up to do."

He's sorry to the designers whose time-slot he swiped. "I totally apologize to any of those designers and anyone that wanted that slot. I would love to send them some flowers or maybe wear a sweatshirt if that could help to make up for it. A lot of times I feel like Will Ferrell in the movie Elf. You know this big guy that wants to [join in] and his hands are a little bit too big. . . . I could just say please forgive me if I ever step on any toes, because there’s nothing that I would ever want to do or say that would take away from any designer, that would take away from anyone’s work or what they’re working so hard on."

He feels like the fashion world's adopted child: "I think the entire fashion world at a certain point sort of looks at me and looks at my family as a child of theirs. Maybe not someone that completely grew up with them, but like an adopted child that came in, like a 17-year-old adoptee you know [Laughs]. But still nonetheless like an adopted child. And I think it’s just interesting for them to see growth, and they can completely tell the difference in the way things were presented in the very first Paris collections to what we’re saying now."

The most important Kanye quote to remember: "Sweatshirts are fucking important. That might sound like the funniest quote ever. How can you say all this stuff about running for president in 2020 and then say sweatshirts are important? But they are. Just mark my words. Mark my words like Mark Twain."