Kanye West showed off provocative White Lives Matter shirts at his YZY Paris runway show earlier this month, and it’s unclear where those graphic tees will end up. But in a video released by Ian Connor, a West partner and popular stylist, he has been accused of sexual assault by at least six women – and it appears West’s team week The shirts were distributed for free at the Skid Row community in Los Angeles on Sunday night.
“Courtesy of Kanye West,” says a voice in the quick video, which pans around to show a busy street and a sprinter full of boxes. A man wearing a shirt from Homeboy Industries — a nonprofit dedicated to helping former Los Angeles gang members recover — walks to the car, and the man filmed encourages him to “hang” it on their food stand.
Connor also posted a photo of the woman posing with an oversized T-shirt, captioning the post “Load 1 – Skid Röw.“
After claiming that American Apparel founder Dov Charney, who now runs the Los Angeles-based clothing company, refused to release shirts made by his company after West announced he was about to participate in “Death Hoax 3,” West appeared to be planning to sell the shirts for free. “Jewish.” (A source close to Charney declined to comment on the shirt or West’s claims.)
Connor has often posted about his recent collaborations with West, such as the “Tre Mendes” T-shirt West wore on RevoltTV’s recent episode of “Drink Champions,” where the rapper falsely claimed that George Flo Ede’s death was caused by fentanyl, made more anti-Semitic comments, and chatted with Kim Kardashian’s ex-boyfriend Pete Davidson.
The shirt West wore in the deleted video depicts Tremaine Emory, Supreme creative director and founder of streetwear label Denim Tears. West has been single-handedly singled out Emery after defending Vogue stylist and editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, who criticized West’s White Lives Matter shirts and slammed West for accusing LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault of “killing the ‘ to their close friend designer Virgil Abloh. (Abloh died of cancer last November.)
Connor was also credited for being the “creative director” of another shirt, an improvisation of Muhammad Ali’s showdown with Superman, but West was the legendary boxer and Emory was the superhero.
“Love love this,” West reportedly texted Connor, according to screenshots he posted, days after Drink Champs host NORE was later spotted wearing the shirt. Over the weekend, West was spotted wearing another shirt depicting Emory’s mouth covered by a white hand wearing an American Stars and Stripes shirt.
Connor’s reemergence in West’s inner circle is surprising, considering the stylist hasn’t been publicly associated with West since around 2016. Before that, Connor was labelled as West’s fashion muse, modelling and serving as a consultant on his Yeezy show.
The then 23-year-old was a fashion stylist and consultant in the hip-hop world, often collaborating with A$AP Rocky andA$AP Mob at the height of his influence, and was close to Abloh, whose Off-White label is developing a cult following. Connor has posed for Vogue Italia, appeared regularly in Hypebeast, and launched the successful Sickö clothing line, worn by Skepta, Zack Bia, and more.
But in June 2016, rapper Theophilus London claimed West fired Connor. While keeping her distance from Connor, at least six women — including Chicago artist Jean Doakes — have come forward to accuse Connor of sexual assault. (In July 2016, Connor denied the allegations, telling Broad: “I don’t condone rape, I’ve never raped anyone. Why force someone to do something they don’t want to do? Any kind of coercion is not cool. .” Connor did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.)
Amber Rose, who dated West from 2008 to 2010, told The Daily Beast in 2018 that 21 women had contacted her privately about Connor, saying she was disappointed that more men in the industry had not addressed the allegations. “I don’t know why [Connor’s] is still walking around,” she said. “I was disgusted by him because I really believed he did everything they said. Really, really sad.”