Kanye West’s much anticipated Yeezy Season 4 fashion show descended into chaos as guests were left trapped on buses, models fainted in the heat and disgruntled fashion editors abandoned the New York Fashion Week show.
The 39-year-old decided to debut his latest collection for Adidas at an abandoned Smallpox Hospital on New York’s Roosevelt Island on Wednesday.
But before the show even began, many were questioning his decision.
Guests including magazine editors, bloggers and street style stars were shuttled to the location on buses from Manhattan, but many took to social media to complain about the long ride.
The show began over an hour and a half past the 3pm scheduled start time and one New York Times Style reporter described it as ‘basically [a] middle school field trip’.
An editor from Fashionista.com joked: ‘The #YeezyBus is really glamorous, guys! Especially when the bathroom door swings open and nearly slaps us,’
Others pointed out there was no water or snacks on the bus and the drivers seemed to have been directed to stall, driving well out of the way into Long Island City to buy time.
Even once the buses had arrived there was some aggravation as guests from big names like Yahoo Style editor-in-chief Joe Zee and rapper Pusha T, were forced to wait in the hot sun, standing in a line that snaked past the island’s abandoned Smallpox Hospital.
To pass the time, they had the option of buying show merchandise, including a $75 long-sleeve tee with the show’s stark white invitation printed on it.
Online, viewers hoping to stream the event on Tidal were also left dissapointed and sat through the playing of Kanye’s latest album waiting for the show to finally begin.
Even extras cast in the show grew a restless, with one fainting before the performance took off and another fainting once it had got started.
One model struggled so much walking in the mules Kanye had picked out, she simply took them off.
Several of the extras standing in the middle, who’d been waiting out in the heat for well over an hour, had to sit down to avoid passing out.
Several editors began walking out of the show before it had even finished.
Stella Bugbee, an editor for New York Magazine’s The Cut, tweeted a few minutes in that she wanted to leave but felt ‘obligated’ to look out for the models, who were struggling.
She went to far as to say Adidas should be ‘ashamed’, noting that several models almost fell and at least one needed to be helped by an audience member.
‘Most awful thing I have ever seen at #NYFW,’ she wrote. ‘Getting the f*** out of this. #YeezySeason4 what a nightmare.’
One person even joked Kanye’s daughter North West was the only positive thing to be seen at the show.
Sticking once again to a neutral palette, multiracial extras of different shapes and sizes wore nude bodysuits in the middle of the grass, while models walked around the perimeter in Kanye’s designs.
Kanye’s wife Kim Kardashian and her sisters Kendall Jenner, and Kylie Jenner dressed in neutral, skin-baring outfits for the occasion, which some people blamed on the show’s late start
Supermodel Chanel Iman, Sofia Richie, and Teyana Taylor were among the big names who did model duty.