Globalized luxury fashion is the crisis: Kanye West, a structure of feeling, and the case of Louis Vuitton

Abstract

Globalization, the process of communication and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide, is a central concept in the study of luxury and fashion, both as innovative activity and guide to the future. This article offers readers an encounter with vital developments within globalized luxury fashion and with one of the most important theoretical arguments of the twenty-first century, namely, that globalized luxury fashion is constitutive of the contemporary crisis. In exploring the idea of globalized luxury fashion as integral to the current crisis and its impact, the article traces the American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and luxury fashion designer Kanye West’s (now known simply as “Ye”) beleaguered conflicts with globalized luxury fashion from the point of view of what the Marxist thinker Raymond Williams called “a structure of feeling,” the culture of the present period, or the specific living consequence of all the components in the overall organization. The article concludes with a discussion of Ye’s globalized luxury fashion style through a case study of his work for and ressentiment toward the global luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton and presents an in-depth understanding of globalized luxury fashion which is essential to anyone reading contemporary critical luxury theory.

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ORCID for John Armitage: orcid.org/0000-0002-5533-197X

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