Dawn Images

Palestinian-American model Gigi Hadid has publicly shown support for journalist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson after rapper Kanye West took to Instagram and criticised the Vogue editor for her commentary on his Yeezy show at Paris Fashion Week that featured “White Lives Matter” T-shirts.

Soon after the show, Johnson took to her Instagram stories and called West, who goes by Ye now, out for his runway choices, and said she was “fuming” from his “misguided” vision.

“He was trying to illustrate a dystopian world in the future when whiteness might become extinct or at least would be in enough danger to demand defense,” she said in a now expired Instagram story.

She called Ye’s move “deeply offensive, violent and dangerous” and later called the T-shirts “pure violence”. According to WWD, Ye’s T-shirt line featured an image of Pope John Paul II on the front and the slogan “White Lives Matter” on the back.

The publication noted that according to the Anti-Defamation League, the slogan is a white supremacist phrase that originated in 2015 as a racist response to the on-going Black Lives Matter movement in the US, which fights for rights for Black Americans.

“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,” she wrote.

In typical Ye fashion, the rapper posted several posts about the journalist, including pictures of her in which he criticised her own clothes. He then deleted them all. Ye also shared a conversation with Mowalola Ogunlesi, who is thought to be his design director, advising him to not insult the writer. She said he could’ve had a real conversation about the T-shirts instead.

Model Hadid commented on his post, “you wish u had a percentage of her intellect. You have no idea haha…. If there’s actually a point to any of your sh** she might be the only person that could save u. As if the ‘honor’ of being invited to your show should keep someone from giving their opinion..? Lol. You’re a bully and a joke.”

Later, Ye shared a photo of the writer on his Instagram account and said, “Gabby is my sister. I’m not letting people go to bed thinking I didn’t meet with Gabrielle at 5pm today for 2 hours then we went to dinner at Ferdie. Anna [Wintour] had Baz Luhrmann film our meeting and we are editing tonight. We took pics and I was instructed not to post them.”

He felt like the writer was being used “like Trevor Noah” and other people of colour to express their thoughts on him. He also added that Johnson told him that her company did not instruct her to speak on his collection and that they apologised to each other for the way they made each other feel and “got along”.

“[We] have both experienced the fight for acceptance in a world that’s not our own. She disagreed I disagreed [and] we disagreed. At least we both love Ferdie and fashion,” Ye said.

Under his post, Hadid once again commented and corrected him for calling Johnson Gabby instead of by her name, Gabriella.

At the same time Vogue issued a statement on Instagram saying that they stand with their global fashion editor at large and longtime contributor. They also wrote that the writer was “personally targeted and bullied” and called it unacceptable.

“Now more than ever, voices like hers are needed and in a private meeting with Ye today she once again spoke her truth in a way she felt best, on her terms,” they stated.

Hadid also shared Johnson’s photo and wrote, “one of the most important voices in our industry and could school that disgraceful man in more ways than he knows.” She also reshared Vogue’s statement and assured Johnson that she has her support.

Looks like, once again, Ye needs his Instagram account taken away.