During Kanye West's infamous 2013 interview with Sway Calloway, he yelled out, "It ain't Ralph, though!" He had been referencing mega-designer Ralph Lauren when responding to Sway's question about why he rants about no one opening doors for him in the fashion industry when he could've been putting all his energy and money into creating his own line -- similar to what Sway had done when he released his own line.
The point West was trying to make was that he didn't think Sway's clothing label was on the same level with Ralph Lauren and went on to detail why he needed bigger platforms to create his design.
As AllHipHop points out, almost a year later, the designer himself has responded to West's compliment of sorts. Style.com's editor-in-chief Dirk Standen asked him what he thought of West using his brand as a measure of quality.
The interview reads:
DS: I don't know if you heard this, but there was a famous radio interview that Kanye West did. He was talking about this clothing line that the host of the show owned, and he said, "It ain't Ralph, though." The idea being, it's not Ralph Lauren level, that Ralph is now a byword for a certain ...
RL: Oh. [ laughs] So an adjective. It's very Ralph.
DS: It ain't Ralph level.
RL: That's very cool. Well, that's great. If I were to cater to Kanye, he would know that I'm catering to him. The fact that I make what I make-he gets it. He gets the quality and he respects it. And I think that's the key, why I work all the time is to do that. That's the fun.
Could this lead to a partnership with West and Ralph Lauren? For now, we have West's Adidas "Yeezy III" sneakers to look forward to this fall.
