Kid Cudi’s Off-White SNL Appearance Is Another Sign That Dresses For Men Are Becoming the Norm – GQ

Cudi and I have history that goes back 10 years. He was on the set of a film shooting on an odd time zone and goes, I need a dress for SNL. I said, Say no more. Im on it.

The silhouette differs from Kurts dress, which is more grunge girlborrowed from Courtney (or one of her acolytes). This ones more borrowed from a hot woman at brunch, or the bridesmaid stealing the show at her best friends wedding. Can you say more about the silhouette?

100%, youre catching the nuance. For me, this moment exemplifies the power garments possess to tell a story. Thats the essence of Off-White since its inception. Derail the notion that fashion only tells stories that my culture consumes, but harness the potential and tell our own stories.

Garments travel. That dress and all Cudis looks have an homage to Kurt Cobain and Chris Farley. The heritage of the setting was important from the beginning. The dress fits the way it does precisely on purpose. It doesnt cop out at the very end and get loose at the top so it looks more safe. No, its a dress from a loved ones closet. Cudi and I are faux against the grain for fun, we really are independent thinkers.

For me, it represents personal empowerment despite any social norm. It vehemently represents confidence. Its Cudi knocking on your television screen saying, Hey! Be yourself. Day one fans of Cudi know that he isnt the norm. He has only ever been himself.

Tell me about the word PATTERN across the bodice of the dress? Pattern like a cut and sew dress? Pattern like Kurt wrote the rule book?

Off-White has a history with the word Pattern on all over prints. Its an entendre to mean all things. In my mind, thats how garments leap from reality to mean something more. So youre onto it all. It means it all.

The dress and the skirt seem to be taking over menswear. You had a lot of them in your LV show; weve got Harry in Chopova skirts and Gucci gowns... and the wearers always look so at ease, liberated. And of course they do: dresses are comfortable! (No wonder Greek philosophers wore them.) What Im getting at is where you think the dress fits into the landscape of menswear now? As Cudi demonstrated, it now seems less about provocation (as it did with, say, the NY Dolls, or even perhaps with Thugga) and more about comfort and freedom. But maybe you disagree! Is the dress displacing the mens suit as the norm from which other fashion deviates or derives? Or do you see it in another way?

The beauty about now, is our generation, piece by piece, can dismantle norms. 2020 was a year of reckoning about how the system in place that governs us as people is out of date. My work exists in the space of pop culture. Gender norms and racial freedoms are amongst the most important things in society that need to be updated. As a fashion designer, moments like this let me know that there is space for intellect and risk for the sake of expanding space. I could care less about the attention. I hope today theres some kid in middle America that feels empowered by what Cudi used our privilege and platform to do.

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Kid Cudi's Off-White SNL Appearance Is Another Sign That Dresses For Men Are Becoming the Norm - GQ