Kanye: ‘I had a heartfelt discussion with my Tumblr’ Womenswear

Kanye West x adidas AW1525 Images

Kanye West Adidas AW15 Yeezy Boost Minimal Mesh

Kanye West has never had an easy ride in fashion, and his latest adidas collection for New York Fashion Week has only fanned the flames of haters around the world. You just need to check out all the tweets and forum posts accusing him of ripping off Helmut Lang, Margiela and Raf Simons. But West is more than aware that his influences are a little, well, obvious. But in a long-ranging new Style.com interview, he also admits to some pretty unconventional ones.

"You guys know my fucking influences," he said. "I've got four influences and it’s written all over the face, you know the combination. Just as much as Drake is influenced by Kanye West, you know my fucking influences. You see Raf Simons right there, you see Helmut, you see Margiela, you see Vanessa (Beecroft), you see Katharine Hamnett. It’s blatantly right there."

"I’m not going to try and act like I was influenced by a fucking dog walking down the street that broke its ankle that I had a heartfelt discussion with. I had a heartfelt discussion with all of these fucking Helmut Lang images that I stared at for so many years. I had a heartfelt discussion with my Tumblr."

Who doesn't have occasional heart-to-hearts with their Tumblr dashboard, right? West also elaborated on another unlikely major inspiration for the collection: the 2011 London riots. "I was living in London at that time and saw the way that the kids wanted the clothes and I didn’t have the skill set to do the more inexpensive clothes," he said.

The whole interview is a fascinating read. West seems to have turned a corner in his path as a fashion designer – he's no longer as intent on recognition from fashion houses (maybe Fendi rejecting his leather jogging pants had something to do with it).

"I’m only concerned with making beautiful products available to as many people as possible," he said. "One of my dreams was to be the head creative director of the Gap. I’d like to be the Steve Jobs of the Gap."

Yeezy also wanted to make one thing clear: APC founder Jean Touitou is no racist. The designer caused major drama when he titled a section in his Paris Fashion Week presentation LAST Ni##@$ IN PARIS. The faux-pas eventually led to Timberland scrapping its deal with APC. Touitou initially defended his choice of words as "only a homage to (West and his) friendship".

"Jean Touitou is one of the most humane people I know," West said. "Jean Touitou had my family have dinner with him every time we came to Paris. And there are a lot of people who own fashion companies who didn’t."

West's $350 Yeezy Boost trainers have already sold out, and he promised that the camouflage pieces from his adidas collection would be released in the next three months. There's no word yet on pricing, but 'Ye wants to "eventually get them super-inexpensive... it will be all about everyone having them". At some point this year, he's also presumably going to release the follow-up to to 2013's Yeezus.

Say what you want – and certainly, people have already trashed his collection in the press – but the Kanye train rolls on regardless.