Don C Reveals Who Introduced Him to Ye & Virgil Abloh

Fashion designer Don C sat down with the Ghetto Runways podcast for an extensive two-part interview recently and spoke on how he met Ye and the late Virgil Abloh. He credited music executive John Monopoly with originally connecting everybody.

“John put me on, put Ye on, and put Virgil on,” he said about Monopoly. “And John intentionally introduced me to Ye and Virgil… At 14, 15 years old, this man John Monopoly is like, ‘Man, I got a cousin, man, he into fashion, if he add some sh—t to what you doing Ye, you gonna be on another level.’”

He also spoke on the viral fashion photo of himself, Ye, Virgil, Fonzworth Bentley, Taz Arnold, and Chris Julian at Paris Fashion Week in 2009, and revealed they took the photo to make a statement for not being let into a venue. “Man, we were just trying to express ourselves. When I look at that picture now, we was lookin’ crazy,” he started. “We had the courage to do that, so I’m happy we did. It opened the doors for everybody.” He then said the picture was Ye’s idea. “Ye was a true visionary because he was intentional about it… He was saying like, ‘Man, we gotta get these pics, too, because it’s gonna be like moments in history.’”

Adding, “We couldn’t get into fashion shows when we first started wanting to go to fashion shows. But being from Chicago, a guy from the nightlife community, you know how to parking lot pimp. You know how to clown at the door… I don’t know if you notice, but that street shot wasn’t at no fashion show. That was outside a fashion show. We was just making a movement because they wouldn’t let us in. And guess who let us in? Karl Lagerfeld.”

Don C also mentioned that he’s working with John Monopoly about properly telling his story, so that his friend can get his flowers.

You can watch the full interview here and here.