You know, one connection that I have, you know, to, I believe everyone in this room, but especially with like me and Virgil and Don C and Fonzworth Bentley and all the people from the infamous Tommy Ton then transferred to South Park photo. Have dealt with in their life somehow, you know, being ridiculed for liking fashion. For that being a career you want to take up. Like even with the stylist that I work with that's my.. I always call her my baby of M.A.S. [?]. “You're my M.A.S. and I'm your Nicholas.” And her brother's a doctor. And somehow in her family she's looked at like she didn't do as much in her life ‘cause she did fashion and something. You know, and, she was the little girl that eight years ago showed me who Emmanuelle Alt was. Back when I was, you know, less informed about how to put my sh** together
And I honest.. I'mma jump to a point just so I don't take too long. I believe that the world can be changed. The world can be saved through design. Through unselfish design. Through unselfish creation. You know, God is the number one creator. I'm a Christian, I'm not tryna push my opinions on anyone. But in my opinion God is the number one creator. And we, anytime we, you know, create, we're extension of doing his work on Earth. While we're here what can we do for humanity? And, you know, in a way, the fashion is what defines the time. People could think in some way they're higher cla**es, some higher statuses that contribute more to the world because, you know, they work on bombs, they work at technology, they, you know, they school teachers. Whatever it is that seems to be somehow that type of profession that when you say it everybody is, “oh, you're a lawyer? Oh great.. lawyer? Motherf**er.” No knock to lawyers, but you know what I'm talking about. So there are no movies without fashion. We define the times, we set in stone. What did 2015 mean? What did 2014 mean? You know? I always told Anna - “I wanna be in the middle of that conversation.” As we all know, The Devil Wears Prada was about Anna .. I said, “I wanna be in the middle of that conversation.” Nah, I'm saying.. we know this. So, where.. she was talking about the blue sweater. And previous to Instagram and all that type of sh** do you know this conversation, “you think you not part of fashion because you don't datatata.” Like the blue sweater, okay, you would know this. And somehow like me and my crew, you know, like all these straight, black guys from Chicago that no one knew why they were at the f**ing show. You know, wanted to say, let's make the conversation, you know, let's make the conversation shorter between, you know, when the blue sweater goes from a Wang show to when it finally hit Kohl's' or something. Pre-Instagram, pre all that sh**, pre people, you know, wanted to show what they had, before images were the new currency
When we talk about, you know, I was talking to Ra**i earlier and he was saying, you know, what his background was and you know, the way he appreciated all of his opportunities that he has like, to just being in America and being able to create. And I told him he had to arm wrestle with Virgil on like who is the greatest guy that I knew ‘cause he's definitely one of the top. You know, one of these times when I look at like him and say “wow,” you know, I wish I could interact with people in the way that he interacts. I wish that I could believe in people unselfishly without, you know, worrying about how it may affect me, affects my reputation blabla, or all of what fashion is. Because I think that's word fashion insiders, but everyone's a fashion insider, you know. It's illegal to be naked, everyone has some form of fashion, every single day. And I think it's, the point I wanna make before I bring ‘em up, because I wanted to make this point to this room really.. you know, we have the power to change the world. I believe that through design ‘cause design is the closest to truth. Problem solving, truth is the closest to love, love is the closest thing to God and God is love. But we have to be unselfish in our approach which is the opposite of someone saying, “Kanye you can't get in this show ‘cause you're a celebrity” or some sh** like that. You know, the way we embrace celebrity, the way, what Miley's had to go through in the past couple years. Dealing with the fashion bigots and sh** like that. I'm not gonna give you guys the speech that Tarantino gave at the Lacma, I'mma say what the f** he should've really said, you know. The old guard accepting the new guard by letting down their guard. I don't even know if I made one f**ing good point
But what I wanna say is, this guy let me, a celebrity designer, work at Milk Studio when Adidas couldn't figure out where my office was. We didn't have windows, you know, it was cool, you know. We'd go out and get a cup of coffee, we stole a bunch of free cappuccinos from down the hallway. And I promised him that I was gonna be f**ing good. It wasn't about me being a celebrity ‘cause it could've been like, “what do you mean you got a celebrity designer working at Milk Studio? This is very authentic, blablabla..” All the sh**. And he told me a story about this kid who stood on his steps and sh**, you know, waiting for opportunities to design then went onto one day become the youngest American to run a French house called Balenciaga. That he believed in that kid back then, believing in, spending everything on Alexander Wang. And, I'm closing now. I don't move, I don't leave my f**ing crib unless I really believe in someone. I don't read the teleprompters blablabla. And I'm so happy that Jeremy is here ‘cause Jeremy asked me to come here also and Jeremy is another one of those bad motherf**ers that changed the game and always expressed himself. I'm not gonna say sh** else. So all I'mma say is, I f**ing love this guy and he sets an example to us as a humanitarian, as a visionary and as an innovator: Ra**i