Vogue stands behind its global fashion editor, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, following Kanye West’s online attacks.
“Vogue sits alongside Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, our global fashion editor at large and long-time contributor. She was personally attacked and bullied. It is unacceptable,” the magazine wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
“Now more than ever, voices like hers are needed and in a private meeting with Ye today, she once again spoke her truth in the way she felt best, on her terms.”
The 45-year-old rapper cruelly mocked Karefa-Johnson’s style choices for not approving his widely condemned “White Lives Matter” shirts.
West posted a photo of Karefa-Johnson on his Instagram, where she wore brown boots, a striped knit skirt, a yellow graphic tee and a corduroy trench coat. The fashion journalist completed her look with a blue Balenciaga bag, large sunglasses and a statement necklace.
“This is not a fashion person,” West wrote in a photo on Instagram, which has since been deleted, adding: “You speak on Ye Ima, speak about you, ask Trevor Noah,” he said, referring to his feud. with the late night host.
In another post, the hip-hop star wrote of the editor’s outfit: “I KNOOOOOW ANNA HAAATES THESE BOOTS,” referring to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.
After West came to get Karefa-Johnson, supermodel Gigi Hadid defended her in a heated Instagram comment in which they turned on the musician.
“You wish you had a percentage of her intellect. You have no idea haha…If there really is a point to one of your s–ts, she may be the only person who can save you,” Hadid, 27, wrote under a post West shared.
West’s insults came after Karefa-Johnson took to social media to criticize the “White Lives Matter” shirts that West debuted Monday at his Yeezy fashion show in Paris.
“I’m smoking…gathering my thoughts…,” she wrote via her Instagram story along with a video from the Yeezy fashion show, in which she called West’s design “indefensible behavior.”
“I think I understand what he was trying to do – he thought it was Duchampian. It wasn’t,” she wrote in another IG story. “It didn’t land and it was deeply offensive, violent and dangerous.”
West had previously defended his “White Lives Matter” shirt, writing on Instagram: “Everyone knows Black Lives Matter was a scam, now that it’s over, you’re welcome.”