Designer Phillipp Plein allegedly paid a $900,000 advance to have Kanye West perform at his New York City Fashion Week event — but West had no knowledge of the deal.
Designer Phillipp Plein allegedly paid a $900,000 advance to have Kanye West perform at his New York City Fashion Week event. Trouble is, West himself reportedly had no idea about it.
Invitations to Plein’s event said West was to perform at the dinner on Monday, Feb. 11, The New York Times reported. There would also be a three-course dinner and debuts of Plein and 3Billionaire's lines.
But West's wife, Kim Kardashian, soon shot down the whole thing, when a fan tried to connect the dots between her appearance on "The Tonight Show" in New York and West's apparent performance at Plein's event — tweeting that it was a “Kardashian West takeover” of NYFW.
Kardashian’s response was simple: “He’s not performing at any fashion show this season. Just a rumor.”
According to TMZ, someone connected to West was allegedly the one who reached out to the designer, misrepresented himself as part of West’s team and forged West's signature.
The Blast reported that person is allegedly Malik Yusef, a six-time Grammy-winning artist affiliated with West’s G.O.O.D. Music record label. He has written on many of West’s projects.
On social media, Yusef appeared to refute the claims that he allegedly bilked the fashion designer out of a huge sum. Retweeting a headline from music blog Hip Hop N More that read "@MalikYusef Allegedly Scams Fashion Brand Out of $750k After Booking Fake Kanye West Show,” Yusef wrote, “Ha ha!!! Never”
Yusef went on to write, “I am a little surprised that my friend and brother @kanyewest would so easily protect, defend, and profess so much love 4 his new friend @realDonaldTrump but have none of that NRG 4 sum 1 who has been there every step of the way is being ‘attacked’. Oh Well #GODSPLAN.”
In a statement, Phillpp Plein International told The New York Times, “We hope to collaborate with Kanye West in the future, and we look forward to our 20th anniversary show this Monday evening.” However, the fashion house denied any wrongdoing by the company or West and said the situation was because of “an individual pretending to be part of his management team [and] acted without Kanye’s knowledge, capitalizing on a former friendship with him.”
A representative for the company declined to comment on the alleged payment reported by TMZ.
The paper also reached out to West’s representatives for comment. They confirmed he would not be performing at the show, but said nothing further.
RELATED STORIES
