Sure, it’s nice to have Demna designing your merch but sometimes the fans come correct. Ye just returned to LA with new partner Julia Fox in tow but, first, Ye picked up a bootleg DONDA shirt, displaying it in full to waiting paparazzi.
It’s a pretty big coup for local streetwear label BLADE, which mostly dropped rhinestone shoelaces, branded jewelry, and edgy Y2K-inspired items to its small community of fans prior to the Ye co-sign.
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It’s actually not entirely clear how the artist formerly known as Kanye West actually found out about the Donda Street Market shirts. BLADE hadn’t promoted the design on Instagram before selling it at the location that Ye shopped at on January 10, though the tees and hoodies are guaranteed to move quickly with Ye repping them.
Now, the “Donda Street Market” tees are being sold through both BLADE’s web store and a brand new Donda Street Market website (that was fast!).
The tees are clearly riffing on the Demna-designed DONDA merch that dropped at the Chicago listening event, placing the all-caps print over that same photo of Ye’s childhood home.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CYkZVVPPXlC/
Obviously, they’re also parodying Dover Street Market Los Angeles, down to printing the retailer’s address on the shirts’ rear above the exact location where Ye grew up.
“I gave the shirt to him as a gift and I had no idea he’d show it off like he did,” BLADE founder Farrell told Highsnobiety. “Seeing his response was surreal.” Appropriately, BLADE and Farrell’s Instagram bios now read “THANK YOU YE.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CYk5VflLYJ6/
There are lots of other DONDA parody tees out there so not entirely sure what got Ye so stoked about the Donda Street Market tees but the man likes what he likes. Plus, he always stops by DSM LA when he’s in town.
It’s not so dissimilar to the merch that Balenciaga creative director and close pal Demna has designed for Ye, to be fair, from the all-caps lettering to the borrowed print.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CYbouC0LzZp/
Most recently, Ye and Demna only deepened their friendship by announcing a YEEZY GAP and Balenciaga partnership, which preceded another look at Netflix’s jeen-yuhs documentary and the latest round of black YEEZY GAP hoodies.
