A Timeline of Kanye West’s Clothing Brands

Are the best projects Kanye West has ever made ones that were never officially released?

From unreleased albums to scrapped music videos to canceled clothing lines, some of West’s most brilliant and bizarre work lives in the archives.

On Monday, that notion gained ground when Ibn Jasper, longtime Kanye kin through his work as a barber, designer, and consultant, uploaded concept sheets of a decade-old Yeezus brand that never was.

The pivotal collection of Yeezus tour merch was expanded to include accessories and skate hardware. The unreleased samples are among the numerous Kanye clothing concepts that changed the game despite never formally entering it.

From clothing companies showcasing the Dropout Bear to womenswear collections that debuted on Paris runways, many fashion concepts created by West have had the hype yet never seen the light of day for one reason or another.

Excluding capsule collaboration work with Nike and APC, here is A Timeline of Kanye West’s Clothing Brands.

Timeline: 2004-05
Key Pieces: Bear Polo, Logo Tee, Reebok S. Carter PEs
Retail Launch: No

Just as Jay Z was throwing out throwbacks in favor of button ups, a preppy Kanye West was bursting onto the scene in popped collar pink polos for his College Dropout debut.

Enamored by Ralph Lauren, Kanye created his own mix of merchandise and aspirational apparel through Mascotte: an on-the-nose homage to Polo portrayed by the Dropout Bear. The line was to be funded by Rocawear.

For performances and TRL appearances, West wore Mascotte samples ranging from egg shell-shaded T-shirts to polos. Much of the early offerings derived from Kanye’s clothing releases done with FTK, a Fresno-based streetwear and screenprinting shop, eyeing an ascent to department store placement.

Eventually, Kanye’s tastes shifted from rugby shirts to international couture. Mascotte never saw an official retail launch.

Timeline: 2008-09
Key Pieces: Shark Fin Hoody, Dragon Jacket, AMA Varsity Jacket, Jesus Pieces designed by Ben Baller
Retail Launch: No

A mix between Marc Jacobs, Ralph Lauren, and American Apparel, Pastelle was lined up to be Kanye’s formal coming out party in the retail world of fashion.

Teased lyrically in Graduation’s lead single “Stronger,” Pastelle grew in hype as West wore sample varsity jackets on stage at the 2008 American Music Awards and took test shots for a leaked lookbook featuring Rihanna.

All of the designs aimed at blurring the lines between streetwear, Americana, hip-hop, and couture ten years before it became the norm. Like many Ye projects, the actual release never happened. Though the exact reasons were never revealed, Pastelle was shelved in 2009 and sent to the archives.

In 2016, it appeared that we would finally get Pastelle’s long-awaited debut when Yeezy disciple Ian Connor proclaimed it was finally coming out under his creative direction. Various samples of original and revamped designs resurfaced online and appeared on the backs of Connor, Quavo, Madeintyo, Bloody Osiris, and more. By 2018, a source inside West’s camp told Complex there were “no plans for Pastelle to announce at this time.”

A capsule collection of Pastelle pieces were finally released at ComplexCon in 2023 – but without any official involvement from Ye. A number of hero items were missing from the launch, ultimately failing to live up to the massive hype that had mounted over the past 16 years.

Timeline: 2011-12
Key Pieces: Fur Backpack, YEEZI Necklace, Giuseppe Zanotti heels
Retail Launch: No

The tragic loss of Donda West is a line of demarcation in the life and career of Kanye West. His biggest advocate and best friend has been referenced on much of his creative output, from a creative agency to an album. His mother’s initials also inspired the name for 2011’s dW by Kanye West, his womenswear debut.

DW was debuted to the world at Paris Fashion Week. The runway show was attended by the likes of Lindsay Lohan and the Olsen Twins. Alexander Milsom, Virgil Alboh, Katie Eary, Dean Quinn, Samuel McWilliams, and Giuseppe Zanotti all contributed to the gutty collection that was praised as a “baby Balmain vision of womenswear” and panned as “a collision of Donald Trump and Herve Leger.”

Ultimately, dW was yet another example of one of West’s fashion ventures that never made it to market.

Timeline: 2014
Key Pieces: Tour Shirts, Skate Hardware, Hooded Sweatshirts
Retail Launch: Kinda

Yeezus – the album and tour – was a verbal attack on the fashion industry. The tour merch was an absolute game changer on how an artist could monetize apparel that introduced a playbook that has since been utilized by mega stars like Travis Scott, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé.

West wore Yeezus tour tees and jackets for much of 2013 and 2014, often paired with layers from Fear of God, footwear from Visvim, and masks made by Maison Margiela. The pieces being seamlessly integrated into the wardrobe of the best dressed rapper in the world boosted the perceived value of the concert tee to a level previously unseen.

The iconic series of T-shirts featuring the skeletal artwork of Wes Lang were also sold in limited capacity through PacSun at the time. As Ibn Jasper recently revealed on Instagram over a decade later, the famous font and heavy metal aesthetic was meant to evolve into a formal brand that also offered skate hardware and accessories. While its full vision never materialized, the merch that did see the light of day was a defining piece of streetwear in the 2010s.

Timeline: 2016-18
Key Pieces: Adidas Track Pants, Crested Crewneck Sweatshirt, Adidas Powerphase Sneaker
Retail Launch: Yes

Legend has it that the origins of Kanye West’s short-lived but much-hyped Calabasas line hail from, you guessed it, Drake. When working on the rumored collab album that never was, Wolves, it’s said Drake arrived in a sweatshirt copped at either Goodwill or a gas station repping the California city.

Said top would inspire a range of Adidas and Yeezy Season offerings that essentially created a diffusion line for Kanye similar to what Jerry Lorenzo built at FOG with Essentials. Adidas Calabasas trackpants became the it product in streetwear for much of 2017.

Crested crewnecks, archival Adidas sneakers, and tour merch all had their time in the sun, styled in zines by A$AP Nast and rocked on errand runs by Kim Kardashian. This all took place during the apex of Saint Pablo merch. The popular line ended abruptly in 2018 amid fallout from a slew of controversies.

Timeline: 2013 – Present
Key Pieces: Season 1 sweats, Season 4 Combat Boots, Season 4 Fabric Slippers, Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga Capsule
Retail Launch: Yes

The shape-shifting silos, red hot collaborations, and unprecedented delays all epitomize Yeezy as a brand.

At its best, Yeezy was able to leverage Adidas’ technology, GAP’s infrastructure, and Demna’s prestige for a vision that democratized thoughtful design and athletic innovation for the masses.

At its worst, Yeezy lacked structure in every sense, never releasing some of the strongest concepts created by incredibly talented designers and spiraling into shock value plays like Yeezy Season 9’s infamous “White Lives Matter” shirts.

Despite countless controversies and infamous shipping delays, Yeezy remains Ye’s longest standing and most successful fashion venture to date.

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