The lawsuit alleges that Kanye West in 2020 stopped paying rental fees for 13 tracks he owned.
Kanye West is accused in a new lawsuit of not returning a series of rare fashion items he rented.
Haute couture rental service David Casavant Archive claims Kanye West, who has officially changed his name to Ye, owes the company hundreds of thousands of dollars and has failed to return thirteen "rare, valuable pieces."
In the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday, July 6, in a Los Angeles court, the David Casavant Archive alleges that Kanye West stopped paying rental fees in late 2020 for 13 different items he owned.
The outstanding fees, the company claims, amount to $221,810.
"The items are all rare, valuable pieces whose value is great because of their rarity and significance in the history of fashion," the company's lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.
"They are not substitutable goods," they stressed.
"Replacement fees relate to the loss of future rentals, lending opportunities, publicity and lost value to the Archive as a whole, as each lost item is part of a wider collection that derives its value from its completeness," they explained.
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The lawsuit notes that when Kanye West "occasionally lost items" he had rented from the company, he was charged the replacement fee.
"All parties understood (as expressed orally and in writing and reflected in years of prior dealings) that apparel is not an easily replaceable commodity," it said.
"Defendant failed to respond substantially to plaintiff's numerous inquiries regarding the outstanding balance and missing items, referring plaintiff to persons without knowledge or authority to resolve the dispute, or directing plaintiff to send his requests to inactive email accounts ", the company's lawyers added.
Kanye West borrowed 49 outfits from David Casavant's 2020 archive.
The company claimed the 45-year-old rapper returned 36 items of clothing without any problems, but in late October 2020 he stopped paying weekly rental fees for the remaining 13 pieces.
31-year-old stylist David Casavant is seeking $221,000 in unpaid rental fees and an additional $195,000 to replace the items Kanye West lost.
Among the 49 items Kanye West rented were a distressed vintage blue Helmut Lang denim jacket, a $5,000 Gucci bomber jacket and a Dolce & Gabbana black mesh T-shirt.
