If you’re willing to sacrifice valuable hours of your life, you may just be lucky enough to see the inside of Kanye West’s pop-up shop at 83 Wooster St.
Like everything good (and bad) in New York City, Kanye’s semi-surprise SoHo pop-up is accompanied by the requisite lifetime wait.
Lines were rumored to have started as early as 9:30 on Friday morning, with the news of the shop breaking just Thursday afternoon via Kanye’s Twitter.
No less than a dozen NYPD officers were trying to direct traffic and prevent any passersby — unless able to prove residence on Wooster Street between Broome and Spring Streets — on the massively crowded, closed off area of SoHo.
Natalia Diaz of the Bronx stood just east of Wooster Street, where the line wrapped around, and said that she’d arrived around 3 p.m. to snag the spot, though hundreds of people seemed to be in front of her. Around 4:45 p.m., she was prepared to wait at least another hour to buy the clothes inside.
But not all the line-stragglers were there to get a piece of Kanye’s fashion line. A rumor was circulating that Kanye himself was inside the shop, as he had tweeted a photo of the street around 2 p.m., two hours ahead of the scheduled opening. Many seemed to want to acquire a selfie with Kanye, more so than any piece of his clothing line.
Christian G., a 20-year-old East Village resident who had been waiting since about 4 p.m., noted that an assistant could have tweeted the photo but said, “If I get to meet Kanye, it will be worth it.” He planned to wait as long as it took to get inside and wanted to buy clothing “if there is anything left.”
As raindrops started to fall, the line shifted up a few feet: Some weren’t willing to sacrifice personal comfort to keep up with Kanye.
Polina, a student visiting from England, took advantage of the surge and rushed to join the line along with a friend. “I’m praying he’s in there,” she said. She was planning to wait as long as it took to get in, and also planned to buy clothes.
Traffic was at a loud, honking standstill as some tried to play Kanye off their iPhones and others tried to negotiate for better spots in line, but it didn’t take even a native New Yorker to know that maybe this line was not worth waiting in.
“We just ended up on the wrong street,” said an unnamed tourist, looking flustered and evidently distraught at being shouted at by an NYPD officer to “get off the street.” She didn’t care about seeing Kanye.
Take a peek at the scene, hopefully from somewhere other than Wooster Street.
