Nostalgia

Once upon a time, long before Yeezy and long before he was writing lyrics about his “b—-” wearing “that new Phoebe Philo,” there were pretty much no indications that Kanye West, who turns 41 on Friday, would one day have the audacity to, say, regularly email Kim Kardashian mood board–filled lectures on the size of her sunglasses. (Not to mention shamelessly spam everyone’s Instagram feeds by posting no less than 99 photos of vintage Maison Martin Margiela looks in a row.) A quick flashback to his 20s proves that West burst onto the scene not only with hits like “All Falls Down”—in which he confessed to not knowing how to pronounce Versace—but also with a wardrobe comprised of pastel green and hot pink polos and cable-knit sweaters. West is, of course, far from the only one to have transformed his style since the early 2000s, but the former backpack rapper’s transformation is particularly worth a reminiscence for the innocence it portrays, which is now so foreign from the ego and controversy he’s famous for today. Speaking of the present, his current industry-friendliness is in fact just the latest of the obsessions that have made up his style over the years, from baggy jeans to bucket hats to those once ubiquitous fully zippered Bape hoodies to, of course, those infamous shutter shades. In honor of his 41st birthday, take a look back at all of those past Kanyes, who vanished into the ether after he interned at Fendi with Virgil Abloh in 2009, here.