Kanye West Faces Lawsuit From A Fashion Rental Company—Here’s Why They Say He Owes $400K

Kanye West is being sued by David Casant Archive, a high-end fashion rental service, that claims that the rapper failed to return multiple “rare, esteemed pieces” and owes thousands of dollars in unpaid fees. As reported by Billboard, in the complaint that was filed in Los Angeles court on July 6, David Casavant Archive alleged that the Yeezy mogul, 45, stopped paying required rental fees in late 2020 for 13 different items.

They claim that these unpaid fees amount to $195,100 for the items themselves, (which is equivalent to the replacement cost if they were lost), as well as $221,810 dollars in outstanding rental fees. The Casavant Archive, as Fashion United writes, is a “private collection of rare garments, focusing primarily on the work of conceptual menswear designers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.”

The lawyers for the company wrote via Billboard, “The items are all rare, esteemed pieces valued for their scarcity and importance in fashion history.” They added, “They are not fungible commodities. The replacement fees reflect the loss of future rentals, loan opportunities, publicity, and the lost value to the Archive as a whole, as each lost item is part of a greater collection that derives its value from its completeness.”

The statement continued, “When defendant Ye would occasionally lose items that he had rented from the Archive, defendant Yeezy was billed the replacement fee…All parties understood (as expressed orally and in writing and reflected in many years of prior dealings) that because the garments are not commodities that are easily replaceable.”

As reported by Footwear News, the filing said that the company enjoyed a productive and longtime relationship with the Donda hitmaker dating back to 2014. Eight years ago, David Casavant Archive apparently started renting out pieces to West’s company Yeezy Apparel LLC as well as the Grammy winner himself.

“Defendants have not responded meaningfully to plaintiff’s numerous inquiries about defendants’ unpaid balance and the missing items, referring plaintiff to individuals without knowledge or authority to resolve the dispute, or advising plaintiff to send inquiries to inactive email accounts,” the company added.