Tyler the Creator Talks After Golf Wang Fashion Show
Tyler the Creator wouldn’t be a proper hip-hop star these days without having his own clothing line. Yet unlike, say, Kanye West, or even Rihanna, the 25-year-old rapper isn’t trying to be part of the high-fashion game. Founded in 2011, Golf Wang—a play on the name of his rap crew Odd Future—is a pure extension of Tyler’s own hugely influential skate-nerd style: slim trousers, polo shirts, lace-up sneakers, and baseball caps in a tutti-frutti array of colors and prints. “Since I was a kid I’ve loved patterns and pink and shit,” he said backstage Saturday night at his first runway show, presented as part of Made L.A.’s inaugural fashion showcase. “Everything I make is what I want to wear.” He got into the fashion business because—as his name suggests—he simply likes to make things, and doesn’t always distinguish between producing music and designing clothes. “For me, there’s no difference between ‘Do I use this synthesizer and do I use it here, with this bassline?’ and ‘Do I use this color and this stripe and put it here, and in this fabric?’ It’s all the same,” he said. It was the people behind Made L.A. who suggested he show his line, and while Tyler accepted the invitation, he claims it will probably be a one-off affair. “I want this to be a special event,” he said, hunched under a rolling rack in a corner of the room. “And right now I’m so nervous.” He needn’t have been. A natural born showman, Tyler presented an exuberant three-ring circus of a fashion show before an adoring crowd that included West, Kendall Jenner, Solange Knowles, Janelle Monae, and Amandla Stenberg. Conceived, he later tweeted, “in Reno in, like, 40 seconds,” it consisted of a revolving bedroom and bathroom set; oversized chairs inspired by Coke cans (Tyler’s own furniture designs); motor scooters; comical videos; a skate bowl; a gambling skit; a performance by Tyler of a song written especially for the event; men, women, and children in polka dot hoodies, Hawaiian shirts, and Crayola-colored trousers; and an epic finale in which Tyler gave away sneakers from his new Golf Le Fleur shoe line to everyone in attendance. “You get a shoe, you get a shoe, you get a shoe!” he shrieked à la Oprah to the roaring audience, before adding a bit more humbly, “When the end of the year comes and I get my shit together, because these are the first samples and we still trying to perfect the shoe—sorry—but by like August, September, October, November, December, you get a shoe, you get a shoe, you get a motherfucking shoe!”
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Tyler the Creator at his Golf Wang fashion show in L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Kanye West at the Golf Wang show by Tyler the Creator. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Kanye West, Kendall Jenner at the Golf Wang fashion show by Tyler the Creator. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Solange Knowles. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Amandla Stenberg. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Anwar Hadid. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Janelle Monae. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The set at Golf Wang, the first fashion show by Tyler the creator. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Guests at Golf Wang. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Guests at Golf Wang. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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The Golf Wang collection by Tyler the Creator, shown as part of Made L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Tyler the Creator at his Golf Wang fashion show in L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Tyler the Creator at his Golf Wang fashion show in L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Tyler the Creator at his Golf Wang fashion show in L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Tyler the Creator at his Golf Wang fashion show in L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
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Tyler the Creator at his Golf Wang fashion show in L.A. Photo by Peter Schwab.
