Well there are plenty of people who didn't "put in the work" and are running high fashion brands.
Scott Sternberg was a CAA agent before he started Band of Outsiders, Marcus Wainwright & David Neville worked in telecom and banking before starting Rag & Bone, Patrik Ervell was a liberal arts major, the list goes on.
I agree with you on the point that Ye needs to just shut the fukk up and start his own shyt, like the guys I mentioned did but I think he has enough credentials and experience.
Motherfukkers with less resources have started high fashion lines and survived. Dude just needs to make it happen.
I actually believe, outside of race or class or whatever reason Ye brought up, the real reason he got turned down so many times is just that he's not the easiest guy to work with.
With music, you just need 10~20 key people to produce great products. You put talented writers, producers, and musicians in the studio and shyt comes out hot.
(I'm obviously leaving out the marketing and distribution part that come later, but still, it pales in comparison to what goes on in fashion)
Fashion, on the other hand, is whole 'nother animal. The production process involves literally hundreds of people from fabric, pattern making, cutting & sewing, labels, hang tags, etc.
The logistics is a bytch, too. You can't compare putting CDs in BestBuy to stocking garments from different parts of the world in many different sizes in boutiques all over the world.
And unlike music, where you just can drop an album once every two year and be good, you need to put out collections every fukking season.
You really gotta be a team player and gotta know how to be patient - because shyt will get delayed and fukked up from fit to finish, fabric to buttons.
That's why he'd be better off starting his own shyt and focus on specific categories.
Another thing is, he lacks a certain degree of aloofness or that cool factor that high fashion guys have.
That eagerness and passion of him are the factors that brought him here, but in high fashion, that sets him back.
These guys are masters at playing it cool or being fake humble.
They're always like, Oh I just make clothes. What I'm doing is not important. There are guys who save lives and build rockets.
Kanye, on the other hand, tries too hard in these guys' eyes.