Forever 21 Really Loves Kanye West Right Now

When Kanye West dropped his Adidas x Calabasas collection two weeks ago, it sold out in minutes. Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that West is one of the tastemakers who helped usher in the Age of Sweatpants. He still has the celebrity power to make a single hoodie sell out in hours. And remember, West set the record at Madison Square Garden for merch sales in one night, an astounding $780,000. Despite the fact that his signature sneaker is a style quagmire, and even though as a person West is as divisive as ever, a lot of people still want to get their hands on his designs. And it looks like fast-fashion retailer Forever 21 feels the same way. The mall store just unveiled a new collection of gear that is the most impressive homage to West’s aesthetic we’ve ever seen. It’s altar-level in its appreciation for the rapper’s designs. And while it’s not uncommon for a retailer like Forever 21 to filter designer trends down to a mass-market level, we can’t recall a time when a big brand has funneled so much of one icon’s work at once. Saint Pablo Tour merch? Check. Calabasas graphic sweats? Check. West’s personal wardrobe? Check. On Twitter, many of Kanye West’s fans were quick to point out the similarities between Forever 21’s new lineup and West’s collections, from the scribble-happy jean jackets to the “Private Concert” T-shirt, a shirt that uses the same font as West’s Saint Pablo Tour merch. Of course, these aren’t pure facsimiles of West’s work—that would be copying. In this lineup, Saint Francis takes over for Saint Pablo, the exclusive enclave of Calabasas gets swapped out for the geographically bigger Los Angeles, and those scribbles aren’t from producers and artists but what we imagine is a 14-year-old high school student (“whoa!”). See more at GQ.