Height of Style: Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2010

Signature Look: Pink polos, Shutter Shades, leather kilts, Adidas Yeezys, earth-toned everything

“I have so much to stunt about,” proclaimed Kanye West (aka Martin Louis The King Jr.) in the middle of a Paris hotel room to officially announce his Louis Vuitton sneaker collab back in 2009. That sentence depicts Kanye West’s style history in a nutshell. Since wearing a “pink ass polo and a fuckin’ backpack,” when he first came out, Kanye has moved the needle of hip-hop fashion with his everchanging wardrobe. The Shutter Shades in the “Stronger” video. His all-red suit to debut “Runaway” at the 2010 MTV VMAs. The leather kilts and Givenchy T-shirts during the Watch the Throne era. Margiela face masks on the Yeezus tour. Wearing distressed denim to the Met Gala. All legendary moments. And that is barely even scratching the surface. Nearly anything he’s worn has trickled down onto fast fashion shelves. Perhaps the most obvious example being his “homeless” Yeezy Season style that included earth-toned hoodies, tattered T-shirts, and baggy sweatpants. Tour merch, he made that a hot commodity too with thought out designs for his Yeezus and The Life of Pablo tours—people wrapped around blocks just for some Gildan.

His Yeezy sneakers, which began with Nike in 2009 and have since turned into a multi-billion dollar empire with Adidas, are some of the most important shoes ever released. Following Jay-Z’s deal with Reebok, Kanye helped cement the precedent that shoe deals weren’t just for athletes anymore, a trend that’s continued with people like Travis Scott and Virgil Abloh (who both came up under Kanye). Now he’s working with Gap, which will likely be his most readily available apparel to date. As polarizing as he is for so many, his style legacy is Hall of Fame level. As he echoes on the Cruel Summer cut “Cold,” don’t talk to him about style, he will embarrass you. —Mike DeStefano