A$AP Rocky Calls Those Balenciaga Dad Sneakers "The Larry Davids"
Plus: the rapper has secret dreams of being an interior designer.
Photograph by Andrew Dosunmu exclusively for GQStyle.
In the cover story for the holiday issue of GQ Style, rapper and style god A$AP Rocky mints the perfect nickname for the Balenciaga Triple S Sneakers —the dirty, chunky dad sneaker that's divided families and inner circles or whatever, and which Rocky also wears in the accompanying photoshoot: "the Larry Davids."
Asked to defend his love for the shoes, Rocky says, "I seen those early, and I like them 'cause they remind me of a Raf Simons sneaker, and on top of that, those shits are fire." A$AP Ant then chimes in with the popular counterpoint to the Triple S's appeal—"Shit is trash"—to which Rocky says, "He's hating 'cause he got the fake Rick Owens Balenciaga shits. I don't fuck with them shits. I only fucks with the ones I got. I call 'em the Larry Davids, you feel me?"
Yes, we do!
Rocky, a longtime Raf Simons acolyte, is known for peppering his music with avant-garde fashion references (he released an ode to the Calvin Klein designer this past summer, and attended Simons's Chinatown Blade Runner-themed menswear show), and the interview proceeds in much the same way. When asked to recount a story about a fight he and A$AP Mob got into at Santos Party House in 2008, Rocky sets the scene with a lengthy listing of outfit credits from seeming photographic memory—Rocky was in Marc Jacobs with D&G pants; Ferg in black Acne pants with a jean jacket; and Nast in "the blue jean jacket with the seam"—before explaining the actual fight.
Several of the magazine's questions were sourced from Rocky's friends and inner circle; Simons asks what Rocky would be doing if he weren't rapping. "If I wasn't doing this, to be real with you, I'd probably be an interior decorator," Rocky says. Later, in response to a question from André 3000 about what hobby he'd like to pursue outside music or fashion, he says, "I want to design furniture. Maybe a sofa. Or a bed." How about a line of Rocky-designed cabrioles upholstered in Rocky-designed velvet, maybe with some feet that channel the ugly-cool of those Balenciaga sneakers? Into it!
