Here's What Went Down When Kanye West's 'The Life Of Pablo' Pop-Up Shop Came to Cape Town
By now you should know that Cape Town was the only city in Africa – out of 21 worldwide – where Kanye West brought his Pablo pop-up shop this weekend. The queue to the shop, which was on Bree Street, snaked all the way to Loop Street. On Friday, the first day of the store, hypebeasts, fashionistas and cool kids were there as early as 6am.
Only ten people were allowed in the shop at a time, which meant a longer queuing period. So, after every 30 minutes, people emerged with shopping bags full of Pablo merchandise.
Inside, there were a few rules: no fitting before purchase, no removing of clothes from display racks. And the security guards’ favorite – if you were only there to take pictures and not buy, then you must leave.
Items available included t-shirts, crew neck sweaters, caps and jackets, which all featured printed phrases from The Life Of Pablo album in gothic letters. The cheapest item was the Cape Town cap (R485). The most expensive, the military jacket, set you back R3654. The t-shirts, sweaters and caps were all inscribed Cape Town, just like they would be inscribed “New York” if the store was there.
Shoppers – who came in all ages, but were mostly young adults and teenagers – browsed around to tracks from TLOP. There wasn’t much variety in product, and some shoppers felt a bit letdown. “This is stuff from Season 1,” I heard someone scream as he left the shop.
Sabelo Mkhabela is a writer from Swaziland, currently based in Cape Town. He also drops award-winning tweets as @SabzaMK.