Zexxmeister André teamed up with Louis Vuitton, co-created a range of sunglasses and invited some of his best friends to pose for the lookbook.

More after the jump!

Louis Vuitton here

André here

We promised you the full interview.

DON VS CAPO

Everybody knows Kanye used to call himself the Louis Vuitton Don. In 2006, he walked on stage at the Def Poetry Jam carrying an LV bag -which wasn’t even available until then- against a backdrop of stacked LV trunks. Not long after that, he hires LV-designer/artist/muse Takashi Murakami as art director for his ‘Graduation’ album. Yeezy might as well have been wearing a T-shirt that said: “Where are you Jacobs?”

It took a while, but the heads at Louis Vuitton got the message. In January 2009, Kanye and head-LV-designer Marc Jacobs pose together at the Paris fashion week as the “Kanye West footwear for Louis Vuitton” hype builds. The shoes, in stores June 2009, are a design collaboration between Kanye and a Louis Vuitton capo: Fabrizio Viti.

Viti has been with Vuitton (and Marc Jacobs) since 2004. He started his illustrious career at Patrick Cox, flipped to Prada and contributed to the Gucci heydays alongside Tom Ford. Two minutes into our talk, it’s clear that Fabrizio wasn’t all that comfortable with the collaboration back when Kanye had the first talks with LV in 2007. What’s a sensitive Italian who never ever listens to hip hop -he prefers his Barbra Streisand records- going to do with an American rap singer, chain blinger, holla at the next chick soon as you blinkin’? Hey, and even worse. That Kanye’s a blogger. And he communicates in caps. IN CAPS, HOMIE!!!

Fabrizio Viti: (laughs) It’s true: I was kind of prepared for the worst. You know, when the Louis Vuitton collaboration with Sofia Coppola came up, it was easy for me to imagine what that would be like. I was familiar with her movies and her sense of aesthetics. That being said: it became clear very soon that working with Kanye would be amazing and I’m very proud of our collection. Kanye didn’t put in as much time has he could, which would have been acceptable -I mean, he’s an extremely busy man. No, he put in as much time as was necessary. He’s a perfectionist.

KNOTORYUS: Was it an easy process to go through?

Fabrizio Viti: Well, because Kanye wanted to be involved every step of the way, it was necessary for us to really get to know each other. I just mentioned Kanye is a perfectionist, someone who wants to know about every single detail. He absorbs everything. Fantastic, non?
He insisted to wait until the recording of his album (808s & Heartbreak –ed.) was almost finished so he could completely focus on this project.

KNOTORYUS : I think Kanye’s drive is often confused with arrogance because…

Fabrizio Viti: (interrupting)

Full interview after the jump…
Exactly! I want to formally state that Kanye West is not a hard man to work with. I loved working with him. He’s probably taught me more than I’ve taught him.

KNOTORYUS : How did you guys work together?

Fabrizio Viti: In the beginning it wasn’t easy because we both had to go back and forth between L.A. and Paris. I couldn’t just start sketching, get those to the factory, hop on a plane, show Kanye some samples and hello: collection! That’s not what happened... (laughs) Uhm… actually, it never goes like that, but you know what I mean.

(long pause) Actually, now that I think about it, working with Marc Jacobs and working with Kanye West is very similar. They both got the same drive and work ethic.”

KNOTORYUS: You’ve designed 11 different models. Kanye told everybody he was feeling inspired. What were some of the choices you had to make?

Fabrizio Viti: Kanye is a true style icon, so we had to come up with sneakers he would want to wear himself. Anytime, anywhere. The perfect shoe. Kanye wanted to design a shoe that goes with everything. You’re sitting front row nex to Anna Wintour, you’re out in the city, you’re on stage… It had to be a divine shoe you could wear with jeans as well as with a three-piece suit.

KNOTORYUS: For a while there was talk about a women’s collection…

Fabrizio Viti : Yes. We had to consider the possibility. We made some samples.

KNOTORYUS: Which Kanye was happy to post on his blog adding the title :
“I COULDN’T DO A COLLECTION WITHOUT INCLUDING THE LADIES…”

Fabrizio Viti : (cracks up) I know, right? Anyway, Kanye wasn’t happy with them. Nor was I. So we decided to just stick to a men’s collection and make that one as fabulous as possible. But, yeah, after doing that, we do have an idea about how we may approach that in the future.

KNOTORYUS: One of the many things I like about Kanye is that he isn’t afraid of making grand gestures. He named the shoes after his own friends.

Fabrizio Vitt: We’ve got the the “Don C’s”: the low tops. They were named after Don C, Kanye’s right hand man and shadow. He was there every step of the way. The high tops are nicknamed “Jasper’s”, which is Ferrari Murakami’s real name. He’s one of Kanye’s best friends… Wonderful, don’t you think? And then there’s… (abruptly stops talking)

KNOTORYUS: (happily continuing) … The boat shoe with the tassels called the “Mr. Hudson”. After the relatively unknown British artist Mr. Hudson, who just signed to Kanye’s label and who Kanye claims to be the next big superstar.

Fabrizio Viti: exactly.

KNOTORYUS: Have you ever seen Kanye West perform?

Fabrizio Viti : I’m ashamed to say this, but no. I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

KNOTORYUS: What’s your favourite Kanye West song?

Fabrizio Viti : (excitedly) Oh, I was visiting him in his L.A. apartment and I was probably one of the very first people to hear his album. When “Love Lockdown” came on… Oh, my god! (sings passionately and slightly off key) “Loooooooovve Lockdààààwn!” I said to him right away: “This is the first time I’ve really heard you sing, Kanye. This is a hit!” He made it his first single and the rest, as they say, is history… (laughs)

This interview was originally published in DSM, the weekly magazine accompanying De Standaard.

(r: LV shoe-designer Fabrizio Viti, l: LV shoe-designer Kanye West)

As promised: more backstage pics of the Kanye West Louis Vuitton collaboration. We’ve been sitting on these for a while now (thanks, Tan Dem!) but we had to wait until our DSM article was published before we could post them.

Fabrizio Viti & Kanye West

I love the above pic.

UPDATE : read the KNOTORYUS + Fabrizio Vitti interview here

The honourable Don C in the background.

Kanye named one of his shoes after him (the other one’s are named Jasper after Jasper aka Ferrari Murakami and Mr. Hudson) . I put that in the article but they edited it out.

Fabrizio Vitti told KNOTORYUS :  “Working with Marc Jacobs and working with Kanye West is very similar. They both got the same drive and work ethic.”

Today we woke up to Mr. West posting KNOTORYUS on his blog.

Thank you, sir.

We’ll be posting more backstage pics and the full interviews with Fabrizio Vitti, ti$a and Fonzworth Bentley later today.

In other news:

Laaa Laaaa La La

Can’t tell us nothing.
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As you probably know I’ve been working long and hard on my exclusive Kanye West For Louis Vuitton article.

It’s been published today…

And I did my research : I talked to Louis Vuitton shoe-designer Fabrizio Vitti. He worked closely with Kanye on this line and he gave me some amazing quotes like :

“Working with Marc Jacobs and working with Kanye West is very similar. They both got the same drive and work ethic.”

and

“Kanye played Love Lockdown (Fabrizzio starts singing passionately Loooove Lockdàààwn) for me in his L.A. condo. I told him : “This is the first time I hear you sing. This is really good song. And then he released it as his first single and as we all know, it became a very big hit.”

About the women’s collection: “we made some samples. Kanye wasn’t happy with them. Nor was I. So we decided to just stick to a men’s collection and make that one as fabulous as possible. But, yeah, after doing that, we do have an idea about how we may approach that in the future.”

Go get your copy of DSM, its the weekend annex of De Standaard – one of Belgium’s most respected newspapers. It should be available in good magazine stores all around the world.

This one’s for you Mr. West. I’ll send you a copy.

First of all: I hope y’all know that this whole collab dates back as far as this.

Unbelievable how he keeps checking himself and his surroundings…

Going through everything he went through, concocting everything he did,  while teaching showing a new way of looking at things.

And how about Amber Rose… I love her.

Class reinvented.

I will be doing a big (print) feature on Kanye for LV real soon.

But I had to show you this before it was all over the net.

More images (which btw kinda suck) here

They’re here. First official images.

I dig the grey ones, but I don’t think I could walk around with an LV logo on my soles. You?

I’m in awe.

This is the most talented dude.

He’s a great great friend.

He’s one of the most stylish men I’ve ever met.

He loves  KNOTORYUS.

And Marc Jacobs and the LVMH people love him.

All pics after the jump

If you can, pick up a copy of Le Vif/L’Express tomorrow.

Or got to Weekend.be

Go to www.baloji.com

Or go see :

27/09: KVS (Brussels, Belgium) – more info
10/10: Salle Daniel Ferry (Nanterre)
11/10: Nancy Jazz Pulsations (Nancy) – more info
12/10: Maroquinerie (Paris) – more info
15/10: L’Usine (Genève, Switzerland) – more info
23/10: Trioletto (Montpellier)

After Pharrell’s Blason collection, it’s time for the original Louis Vuitton Don to step up.

What you see in this picture is Kanye West signing a deal for a Louis Vuitton collab…

No info on what Mr. West will be designing for the brand, but we will keep you posted.

Remember, you read it here first. Well… okay, second. But Don C aka Deadstockdon doesn’t count, cuz he’s like Kanye’s best friend.

Here he is: (far right). Do check out his blog, he’s got some really good inside scoops!