The Unexpected Art Reference You Missed From Yeezy’s New NSFW Campaign

If we’ve learned anything from Kanye West’s many ventures over the past decade or so, it’s that he doesn’t do things by halves – and he certainly isn’t afraid of courting controversy. Though the part time rapper, part time designer, full time walking Twitter storm has been focusing on his music of late, launching new album YE at the start of this month with a star-studded listening party in Wyoming, he’s still found the time to release the campaign for his latest Yeezy venture, the 500 Supermoon sneakers.

As we’ve come to expect from Kanye, this is hardly your typical glossy fashion campaign. After all, the previous batch of Yeezy promo images ingeniously staged paparazzi-style photos of Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian West (along with other Insta-famous faces such as Paris Hilton, Amina Blue, Sami Miro and Jordyn Woods) out and about in LA while wearing designs from Yeezy Season 6, acting as a showcase for the brand while also riffing on one of the hallmarks of celebrity culture.

See Kanye's new Yeezy campaign below...

This campaign, however, sits on the NSFW end of the spectrum. Instead of featuring Kim herself, the images (which were shot by Eli Russell Linnetz, who previously photographed the Kardashian-Jenner for their 25 day Christmas card extravaganza in 2017) star a lookalike (adult film actress Lela Star) in varying states of undress, as well as a Kourtney Kardashian doppelganger and a further line-up of models of a range of ages (some of whom are, yes, wearing long and distinctly Kim-esque ice blonde wigs). Each one is wearing Yeezy's new Supermoon trainers (which are high fashion Dad trainers if we ever saw them); while some are wearing just that, others have been styled with the brand's distinctive shorts, oversized tees and sweatshirts in the trademark palette of khakis, dusty greys and beiges.

With some of the models taking contorted, often sexualised poses, we’d be willing to bet that Kanye’s Pinterest board (come on, we know he has one) for this campaign featured the work of one British pop artist in particular. Allen Jones is best known for his sculptures featuring women in contorted, often submissive poses, wearing fetishwear or nothing at all – and much like Kanye, his work has attracted critical censure and controversy as well as praise. Who said fashion couldn't be cerebral?

Kanye West actually smiles sometimes - scroll through the gallery below for proof...