Miami, FL – Swae Lee spent part of Super Bowl weekend at Saks’ Brickell City Centre in Miami to launch his new collaboration with Giuseppe Zanotti, his first design venture. Wearing bubblegum pink heeled booties, the Rae Sremmurd member addressed the crowd of overzealous teens.
“A lot of [rappers] are fucking scared to wear shit,” he said. “They want to think the old ways and put a limit on that shit. I’m not scared to be different.”
Prior to the event, Swae sat backstage in his private dressing room and revealed the Giuseppes Zanotti collaboration was a dream come true.
“Even growing up, we used to rap about Giuseppes,” he told Footwear News. Everybody in the hood wanted them. We couldn’t afford it, so you were a real high-end dude if you wore Giuseppes. You were going to make a lot of noise and turn heads if you came through wearing them.”
Swae revealed the line last month in an Instagram post.
“New Limited Edition @giuseppezanotti shoes designed by Me,” he wrote in the caption. “whole collection will be available in Miami Super Bowl weekend only at Saks Fifth brickwell city Centre.”
During the event, Zanotti mentioned he paid close attention to Swae’s music and videos before deciding to collaborate.
“I thought, ‘Why is this guy so elegant?’” he said. “With dressy shoes and jackets. It’s crazy. And his hair and tattoos. He’s a modern artist. Swae is young. He’s the new generation. He has something different than others. It’s crazy in a good way. Sometimes absolutely opposites work.”
Swae hopes this is just the beginning of his career in fashion. He daydreamed aloud about having Kanye West act as a potential mentor.
“Definitely, this is the next step for real,” he said. “I should reach out to him [Kanye] now. He’s such a smart guy. He could give me real pointers [because] I never got in and got creative until now. I learned that it takes a long time to make and to get the physical shoe. If you want to change something, it will take months.”
Swae is touring the U.S. throughout the spring alongside Post Malone and scheduled to perform at New York’s Governors Ball Music Festival this June.