Swae Lee is the latest artist to defy gender norms in his latest shoe collaboration with Giuseppe Zanotti.
“You can’t even put a gender label on this shoe,” the rapper told Page Six Style at the launch party at Saks Brickell in Miami during Super Bowl weekend. “A girl can come and wear this shoe, an old man, a young man, a 20-year-old could wear this shoe.”
Prices range from $995 to $1,695, and the collection includes “Blabber” sneakers, loafers, boots, and a whole lot of pink.
Zanoti spoke about the message in the floral designs. “This flower is a message,” he told us. “People believe a flower is too feminine … Now there are not any more men, women, no gender anymore.”
Swae Lee continued saying floral designs doesn’t take away from masculinity. “We’re definitely pushing fashion forward,” he said. “A lot of people are scared to wear flowers. They feel like it takes away from their masculinity, but I do it every day. Like, you put it on, you wear it just like normal stuff.”
He added, “It’s just about people stepping up to those shoes and being able to put them on confidently without worrying about what somebody says.”
Like many other rappers, the “Black Beatles” artist uses fashion to boost his confidence and express himself. “I have a lot of fun when I’m getting dressed,” he said. “When I put something together that’s fire and I look in the mirror … it brings out your confidence. It makes you perform 10 times better. If I’ve got some nice clothes on head to toe, I’m like, yo, chest out!”
The collaboration came about after Swae Lee rocked a pair of Giuseppe Zanotti shoes to an award show, and he was contacted for a collab. The rest was history. “I was like, what the f—k? Like, it blew my mind,” he said. “You can never expect that and then coming from Mr. Giuseppe himself. I was in Paris and he came to the lobby of my hotel I was staying in. I got dressed and came down and we made it happen.”
Take a look at some of the pieces from the collab. How are you feeling it?
