Archive: December 19th, 2008

Andy Fossum/Startraks

We’ve been hearing about Kanye West’s potential fashion internship plans from everyone but the hip-hop star, and last night, West spoke to PEOPLE at the Flaunt 10th Anniversary party about his plans to balance music and fashion. First and foremost, he says “I’m not breaking with music. I’m just going to do it on weekends. Just learning, learning as much as I can about fashion.” Turns out that this is hardly a new passion, “I was drawing and designing stuff for the longest [time]. I actually went to art school and dropped out to do music. It’s the real thing for me. It’s not a thing that I just put my name on something.” Speaking of fashion with his name on it, Kanye tells PEOPLE that he’s “going to Paris this Saturday to finish my shoes up that I’m doing with Louis Vuitton.” The timing of the internship is still up in the air at this point, but he’s already had several invitations from fashion world pals. As for his own fashion idols, he says he admires, “Stefano Pilati, Raf Simmons, Kim Jones.” If his timetable isn’t concrete, his long-term goals are. “Just trying to get to the point where I’m good enough to make clothes to put my name on it…it’s my love. It’s something I want to do for the rest of my life.”