Kanye West’s most incredible music video fashion moments as he gears up to release new album Donda
Rapper and designer Kanye West is set for new music.
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Your support makes all the difference.Kanye West has confirmed he’s releasing his latest album on July 23.
Named Donda after his late mother, West announced the news during a Beats by Dre advert. It featured US sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson – who is missing out on the Olympics after testing positive for marijuana – and a song by West called No Child Left Behind.
Donda will be West’s 10th solo album, following 2019’s Jesus Is King. Apple will live-stream the global premiere on July 22, taking place at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta Georgia.
As both a musician and designer, fashion is always front and centre of West’s projects. He’s given us some memorable style moments in his past music videos – and no, we’re definitely not talking about the shutter shades he favoured in 2007…
Runaway
We could argue for days over West’s best song and album – it’s definitely up for debate, but common consensus tends to land on Runaway and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Such a sweeping song deserves an impactful video, and that’s certainly what West delivered in 2010.
Runaway comes as part of a 35-minute extended video featuring multiple songs from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The Runaway section is simple but visually stunning: West in a slick tuxedo with a white jacket, surrounded by dancing ballerinas in striking black tutus.
The full short film is worth a watch – it’s an epic tale of West’s relationship with a half-woman, half-phoenix who has fallen to earth.
Fade
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The video for Fade from 2016’s The Life of Pablo doesn’t feature West at all. Instead, it stars Teyana Taylor, an artist signed to West’s GOOD Music label.
The majority of the video features Taylor dancing around a gym – her athletic moves and wet-look hair reminiscent of Flashdance. Her outfit is simple – a sports bra and knickers – but it’s a reminder of West’s signature style. With his Yeezy label and the help of estranged wife Kim Kardashian West, he helped the trend for stripped-back athleisure go mainstream.
Wolves
The 2016 video for Wolves doubled as an ad campaign for French fashion house Balmain.
It features Kardashian West and models such as Alessandra Ambrosio, Joan Smalls and Jourdan Dunn all dressed in Balmain: heavily embellished clothes with lace accents, strong silhouettes and plenty of corsets.
Touch The Sky
The obsession with Seventies fashion is everywhere right now (most recently demonstrated by The Foo Fighters) – so back in the mid-Noughties, West was ahead of the curve with his music video for Touch The Sky.
The Seventies-inspired clip features daredevil ‘Evel Kanyevel’ (West) trying to fly a rocket over a gorge. The fashion is impeccably retro – from West’s pink shirt to Pamela Anderson’s satin playsuit – although it did get the rapper into hot water. Daredevil Evel Knievel served West with a lawsuit for similarities to his life and work, particularly taking issue with the star-spangled jumpsuit West wore – almost identical to Knievel’s when he failed to jump the Snake River Canyon in 1974. The lawsuit was later settled out of court.