Gigi Hadid has defended Gabriella Karefa-Johnson after Kanye West singled the Garage magazine editor out on social media.
The Donda rapper and fashion designer was heavily criticised for sending Black models down his Yeezy SZN 9 catwalk wearing “White Lives Matter” T-shirts at Paris Fashion Week.
Karefa-Johnson was one of many who responded negatively to the runway show. However, West launched a personal diatribe against the creative director from his Instagram and claimed she was “not a fashion person”.
Hadid took to her Instagram Stories to issue a statement and described West as a “disgraceful man” for singling Karefa-Johnson out.
She added that Karefa-Johnson is “one of the most important voices in our industry”.
In comment under one of West’s posts, the model added: “You wish you had a percentage of her intellect. You have no idea… if there’s actually any point to any of your s*** she might be the only person that could save you.
“As if the ‘honour’ of being invited to your show should keep someone from giving their opinion? Lol. You’re a bully and a joke.”
On Tuesday 4 October, West shared two photographs of the editor with his 17.9 million followers on Instagram, with a caption that mocked her appearance and claiming that Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour would “hate” the boots Karefa-Johnson wore in the pictures.
Both posts have since been deleted from West’s account and replaced with a portrait of Karefa-Johnson.
He insisted that she was his “sister” and that the pair met on Tuesday afternoon (4 October) before going to dinner with other celebrities together.
West claimed that Wintour “had Baz Luhrmann film our meeting and we are editing tonight”, adding that the pair “took pics and I was instructed not to post them”.
Explaining his previous attacks on Karefa-Johnson, he continued: “It felt like she was being used like Trevor Noah and other Black people to speak on my expression. She expressed that her company did not instruct her to speak on my T-shirt expression.
“We apologised to each other for the way we made each other feel. We actually got along and have both experienced the fight for acceptance in a world that’s not our own. She disagreed, I disagreed, we disagreed.”
The editor and stylist has not issued her own post or comment on West’s claims.
In her criticism of his “White Lives Matter” T-shirts, she said that including them in his runway show was “indefensible behaviour”.
“The T-shirts this man conceived, produced, and shared with the world are pure violence,” she wrote on Instagram. “There is no excuse, there is no art here. I do think if you asked Kanye, he’d say there was art and revolution, and all of the things in that T-shirt. There isn’t.
“As we all work through the trauma of this moment, especially those of us who suffered in that room, let’s have some grace for one another.”
