Antoinette wanted to ditch her Kanye West merchandise. Her Jewish friend had another idea

From Yeezy sneakers to yarmulkes, a collaboration between three Australians to upcycle Kanye West's merchandise into Jewish skullcaps aimed to send a greater message.

Australian writer and filmmaker John Safran wore a yarmulke that was upcycled from Kanye West's Yeezy sneakers. Source: Supplied / Antoinette Barbouttis

Key Points

• An Australian creative trio teamed up to upcycle Kanye West merchandise into Jewish skullcaps, or yarmulkes.
• Antoinette Barbouttis "was done" with rapper Kanye West after his anti-Semitic comments.
• Jewish friend and filmmaker John Safran suggested her Yeezy sneakers could be transformed into "YEmulkes".

Antoinette Barbouttis was beginning to lament the "countless" merchandise by Kanye West that she owned - until she found a way to upcycle them with a humorous touch.

The Sydney-based woman said she had collected several t-shirts and a dozen Yeezy sneakers over the decade she listened to the famous rapper's music.

But her initial discomfort with West, also known as Ye, turned into a boycott after he wrote a tirade of social media posts in late 2022 that were condemned as anti-Semitic.

"I was done. As soon as it was anti-Semitism, I thought, that's next level-kind of dangerous, I'm not into that," Ms Barbouttis said.

Ye's anti-Semitic comments led to Adidas cutting ties with the famous artist, formally ending their lucrative Yeezy collaboration in October last year.

After a conversation with her friend, Jewish-Australian filmmaker and writer John Safran, about what she should do with her Ye-affiliated items, he had an idea.

"I was planning to never wear them again, but then I went to John and I said, 'you're Jewish, you could tell me what I could do with this stuff' ... but then John came up with the idea of turning it into a yarmulke," she said.

The candid photoshoot featuring different "YEmulkes" was organised by the creative Australian trio. Source: Supplied / Antoinette Barbouttis

The duo collaborated with Chrissy Seo, a costume tailor, and set about making a yarmulke - or "YEmulke" - in time for Mr Safran to host a multicultural comedy gala last week.

Mr Safran said it was a fun, playful project to make the religious skullcaps while making a poignant statement that Jews will not cower to anti-Semitism.

"You're not even breaking our spirit. We're responding with some weird kind of Jewish self-deprecation by saying, no, we're here, we're not tucking in our Stars of David, just because there are spells of anti-Semitism and people are trying to intimidate us into hiding," he said.

For Ms Seo, she was determined to meet the brief: transforming a shoe into a hat.

It took her two weeks to create three yarmulkas, one of them particularly difficult with the thick fabric of the Yeezy sneaker, and others from pre-loved sweatshirts.

Chrissy Seo and Antoinette Barbouttis worked on sewing the cap, made out of the Yeezy sneaker fabric. Source: Supplied / John Safran

"If Kanye ends up liking them, that is my success because if he likes them enough that he can get past all the political stuff that means my art has done its job," Ms Seo said.

Despite the intense labour around designing the yarmulkes, she said the humour behind the project made it all worth it.

"I think what was rewarding for me was that I was laughing the whole time," she said.

While it initially began as a fun concept for the trio, Ms Barbouttis is considering selling the yarmulkes and donating a portion of the proceeds to the Jewish community "in this new era of Kanye".