It was Pharrell Williams who was being honored as a fashion icon but it was another music superstar who got a lot of the attention at the annual Council of Fashion Designers of America awards on Monday night.
Introducing Pharrell the producer-singer-songwriter who was receiving the evening’s Fashion Icon award Kanye West took the opportunity not just to praise his friend but to express some frustration at the fashion industry for he suggested its cool reception to his efforts to be a serious fashion designer.
‘It is very difficult to break perception’ West said. ‘Fashion had to be the hardest high school I ever entered. At least I had a big brother’ he said referring to Pharrell who ‘talked me through it and kept me going’ in the face of criticism over his fashions.
West called Pharrell ‘my style idol.’
Pharrell in turn thanked many fashion figures who’ve influenced his career and his personal style and concluded by saying: ‘I’m not a style icon.
I’m just inspired. And I’m OK with that.’ Forgoing his famous shorts and tall hat for a very casual ensemble of lived-in jeans a blue leather jacket and a beret-style cap he spoke at length about his dual loves of music and fashion and their relationship to each other.
He also made a point of thanking the fashion world’s leading arbiter Vogue editor Anna Wintour for giving him some key visibility in her magazine a decade ago.
Kim Kardashian presented the media award to Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom who repaid the favor by calling her in his speech ‘the Queen of Instagram.’
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