Fashion icon Iman is giving the thumbs down to Kanye West’s latest faux pas.
Iman said she is “disappointed” that the embattled Yeezy designer is promoting his newest collection with the hate slogan “White Lives Matter” emblazoned on shirts.
The trailblazing supermodel explained that there is “a lack of understanding of that just one gesture, or what it does,” during an interview for a SiriusXM TODAY Show Radio special that will begin airing Friday.
Noting that while calling out organizers of the movement for misappropriating funds may be justified, she said that dismissing the entire movement is not the way to go.
“But you don’t call [out] the movement. You know?” she stressed to Hoda Kotb on Wednesday.
One of the very first Black women to break down color barriers in the fashion industry during the 1970s thinks West’s “act in itself… was reckless.”
“It was very disappointing,” Iman said.
During a surprise Paris Fashion Week showcase on Monday, the 24-time Grammy Award-winning failed U.S. presidential candidate wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt. There were also models wearing garments with the polarizing term walking the runway.
The Anti-Defamation League categorizes the terms as a “hate slogan” used by white supremacist groups including the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Renaissance Society.
For his latest attention-grabby antics, West – who considers himself “the greatest artist that God ever created” — has been criticized on social media.
The “Jesus Walks” rapper doubled down on his use of “White Lives Matter” by posting numerous photos of the term, one notably being a photo-shopped image of Bella Hadid’s viral spray-on dress from the Coperni Paris Fashion Week show.
“Here’s my latest response when people ask me why I made a tee that says white lives matter… THEY DO,” the 45-year-old father of four biracial children wrote Wednesday in the caption of another post of of an image with the words on a black shirt in white lettering.
West also posted references to articles denouncing the Black Lives Matter organization.
Iman also took umbrage to West mocking Vogue fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson because of her criticism of his show. “The attack on Gabriela, who works at Vogue, you know, I thought was a little bit childish to pick on her boots. What are we 5-years-old? …I wanted Kanye to say his point rather than attack her. Make your point. I disagree, but make your point.”
“Don’t attack another Black female and then talk about her shoes. What has that got to do with anything? I was like, this is childish,” she added.
Iman is currently featured in the new YouTube six-part documentary series “Supreme Models: The Story of Iconic Black Women Who Revolutionized Fashion.”
