Coming in hot: the inspiration behind YZY x GAP flame cap When you think of flame print fashion, you’ll probably imagine Guy Fieri - the TV personality famous for his red hot camp collar shirts in the early 00s. But this Summer, the fire motif has been given a modern refresh thanks to a new set of caps released as part of Kanye West’s YZY x Balenciaga x GAP drop. Fieri’s shirt designs might have a history in rockabilly and hot rod scenes of the 50s, but the embroidered flame brim caps seen in Ye’s capsule have ties to a different kind of motorsport - NASCAR. Anyone who’s a fan of the Daytona series will remember the iconic flame wrapped car that Jeff Gordon drove during his 2001-2010 era with Dupont. The fiery design extended to Gordon’s team uniform and the racing caps he would often wear post race. It’s likely the DuPont team caps take inspiration from the podium caps worn in F1 which feature a similar embroidered brim design. Naturally, NASCAR teams turned up the look with an all-gas-no-brakes attitude by replacing the elegant gold leaf pattern with red hot flames. Stock car racings associations with trailer trash rednecks made these caps perfect object of desire for fashion designer, Demna who reworked them into his FW18 collection at Vetements, the brand he co-founded before leaving to focus his efforts as creative director at Balenciaga. Demna’s designs became a favourite for Ye who was captured wearing different variations in 2018/19. It would be easy to say the Vetements caps inspired the GAP collab, but in May this year @legendary6ix claimed it was a rip of there own design, which Ye had worn during DONDA LP3. The hats which feature black and grey colourway were created in honour of Harlem World rapper Huddy Combs aka Huddy 6. According to the brand, Ye’s camp claimed they wanted to run an official collab before going quiet and releasing their own version. Of course the design isn’t original, and Ye has even been seen in other unbranded versions, but it’s understandable the brand was left with a bad taste considering the charitable design of the original.