Clothes maketh the Kanye

For over a decade, the rap superstar Kanye West has written music that pushes boundaries, courts controversy and divides critics. Now, having compared himself to Jesus and Steve Jobs, he wants to design clothes for the masses, says Jon Caramanica.

ON a Sunday afternoon in early February, Kanye West was in a makeshift conference room at the downtown New York showroom of Adidas, mapping out his vision for fashion.

It was three days after the presentation of his first sportswear collection, Yeezy Season 1, at New York Fashion Week. Produced in collaboration with Adidas Originals, Yeezy was the culmination of a decade of striving, self-teaching, self-humbling and agitating for attention.