But YG, tell him what you told me about that cardigan.
YG: I'm like bro, everybody going to pull up wearing a fucking suit. I'm not trying to pull up wearing
a suit. I'm trying to stand out and be like, damn. But it's still YG—it's not like I just wanted to go do some shit for attention. I had just bought a gang of Noon Goons and shit from the website, so I'd go to the closet, they're sitting right here, I'm wearing this. But with the hard bottoms and shit, and I had pink hair at the time.
KN: Yeah, that was dope.
GQ: And you were just like, “Fuck a shirt, I’m gonna rock these tattoos.”
YG: Yeah tattoos all over, you know what I’m sayin’?
If you were given a blank check and your own design house, what kind of clothes would you make?
YG: If I was given a blank check, I'd go crazy with full-blown leather outfits, full-blown Swarovski crystals. I go make me some expensive-ass hard bottoms, you know what I'm saying? Low top and hard top. I'd make all the shit that I buy from Saint Laurent and fucking Balenciaga and all that shit. I’d just do a high-end, upscale side of the brand. I'll just go heavy with that shit, but it'll be real, it'll be fly, but it's still going to be gangster and West Coast for sure.
KN: When I first met YG—just seeing him, even before I met him—his natural style is fucking on point. It outshines any other rapper in the game, or artist. That's why I was stoked to be able to get in with YG. He can rock the Cuban heels. He can rock the sexier shirts and shit, but with how YG likes to call that swag. It all comes around and you see it in the photo shoot, in the lookbook that we just dropped. He just put that on and hey, it was just on. He can wear it all. YG's just got that natural style, so I think if you gave him a blank check, I think he'd put out some dope shit.
What was it about Noon Goons that appealed to you in the first place?
YG: I go to Nordstrom's a lot by my house. The Nordstrom's by my house be having gang of high-end shit, all the name-brand shit, so I first seen Noon Goons in that Nordstrom's. I’m like “Noon Goons?” That sound fire. Okay. Checking it out. You feel me, the cut of the pants at the time, it was nice and wide, baggy-type pants. It was just a gang of pieces that just was yelling out West side to me. So I was like, who the fuck is Noon Goon? Where the fuck they from? I'm going to buy this shit. So I bought the shit, I'm wearing it. I like how that shit feel, the quality is nice as fuck, it's heavy, the slacks go down to my ankle type shit. I'm persistent when I fuck with this shit. I continue to fuck with it, so then I started buying off the site. Noon Goons complements my swag—this shit go together.
KN: YG's got the high-end style, but he's also from the streets. What I bring and Sam [Jarou], my creative director who's based in Paris, who YG knows as well, brings—Sam comes from Paris, the high-end couture scene, and I'm coming from the streets, what I can bring, the culture and what we have here in Southern California, and it's just a good mix. I think you see that in the clothing. Someone like YG, he's got that high-end style, but he fucks with our shit because it's a good mix. We want stuff you can wear around everywhere. That's what I'm trying to do.