Music star Kanye West turned up at an East End textile merchants earlier this week to pick up stock for his fashion range.

The American rapper and designer spent time chatting with staff at London Trimmings, in Whitechapel and was “very humble”, according to owner Ashraf Loonat.

He ended up buying thousands of pounds worth of stock for his ladies’ fashion range which he will be showing during Paris Fashion Week on Saturday.

Mr Loonat, 31, said: “He was very passionate about what he wanted to do. He told us fashion was a line he was pursuing before his music career.

“I said to him I was quite impressed he was doing it himself. We cater for a lot of the big designers but a lot of people get their assistants to come in.

“We chatted about quite a lot of things like why there aren’t many big name black designers.”

The chart topper, who made two trips to the store in total, also had a cup of tea with staff.

London Trimmings, a family-run business which was set up 35 years ago, works closely with designers and sells accessories, zips and trimmings – many of which are highly technical and not provided by big manufacturers.

The textiles boss said the store was quite busy when Mr West came in and added that some customers were “quite shocked” to see him.

He thinks they may be treated to another visit from the star, too.

He added: “I personally think he will make a success of what he is doing and come back.”