Going into Sunday night’s 2025 Grammy Awards, Kanye West wasn’t a lot within the dialog regardless of his nomination for greatest rap music. However even because the present wrapped up with out him profitable, the infamous music and trend provocateur managed to seize headlines for as soon as once more utilizing his spouse’s bare physique to execute a red-carpet stunt.
As West has executed many instances earlier than prior to now couple years, he obtained his reported spouse, Bianca Censori, to go undressed, or practically so, in public, with the intention to invite shock, alarm and commentary.
Censori truly arrived on the crimson carpet totally lined in a black fur coat. West, in the meantime, additionally was dressed head-to-toe in a black T-shirt, pants and sun shades. A report by the Day by day Mail, citing a lip-reading professional, mentioned that West commanded Censori to drop her coat. He advised her to start out “making a scene now.” After she initially balked, she relented after he advised her, “Drop it behind you and then turn, I got you.”
“All right, let’s go,” Censori reportedly mentioned. When she dropped her coat, she revealed that she was sporting a mini-dress that regarded like a sheer stocking. It left little to the creativeness.
Kanye West, left, and Bianca Censori — sporting one other head-turning outfit — arrive on the 67th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. Jordan Strauss/Related Press
Whereas there have been conflicting stories about whether or not West and Censori had been escorted from the ceremony, or left on their very own accord, some writers lamented that the main focus of the Grammys ought to have been much less on West and extra on younger feminine performers, comparable to Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, “planting their flag as the future of this industry,” or on Beyonce’s historic win for album of the 12 months.
Unable to disregard West and Censori’s stunt, trend writers and cultural critics had been left to ponder the rapper’s intentions, inventive or in any other case, to stage one more provocation involving Censori’s physique. In addition they speculated on how a lot his 30-year-old accomplice continues to be a keen participant in what The Minimize known as “some kind of humiliation kink for her husband.” Because the Washington Put up’s type writers additionally famous, West isn’t identified to be a mentally nicely human being, having been identified with bipolar dysfunction and identified for his public meltdowns and his antisemitic rants.
There’s one factor trend writers might agree on: Censori’s outfit, such because it was, wasn’t essentially that outlandish or excessive, provided that the “naked dress” has turn out to be an eyebrow-raising fixture on the Met Gala, awards present crimson carpets and trend runways prior to now 12 months, CNN reported. Celebrities comparable to Dojo Cat, Elle Fanning, Charli XCX, Charlize Theron and West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian have all worn their model of a unadorned gown. However CNN writers Leah Dolan and Oscar Holland additionally requested whether or not Censori’s tiny, sheer gown Sunday night time went from a “naked dress” to her being simply plain bare.
Washington Put up type writers Shane O’Neill and Anne Branigin additionally opined that the actual provocation in Censori’s show may be “the power dynamics.” The “obscenity” of the show was the “juxtaposition of Kanye’s coverage versus Bianca’s nakedness,” Branigan mentioned.
“Even the sunglasses he was wearing — standard for him and a lot men on red carpets — seemed like a statement next to her nudity,” Branigan mentioned. “What’s weird about this discourse to me is that even if it’s ostensibly about Bianca’s outfit, she seems almost like an afterthought.”
O’Neill mentioned that West may be making a press release, nevertheless muddled, about “the dynamic that you see up and down red carpets and in the entertainment industry: men can be neutral, women are offered up for consumption.”
Branigan added that West has himself participated on this dynamic through the years, together with with Kardashian and his ex-girlfriends Amber Fox and Julia Rose. At occasions, he has been lined up head-to-toe, whereas accompanying a scantily clad lady, who additionally occurs to be lighter-skinned. “Kanye’s oeuvre — his music, his interviews, his public appearances — have shown us that he’s very conscious of racial dynamics, but he’s also fixated on them in an explicitly sexual way,” Branigan mentioned.
In the meantime, Censori stays a little bit of a cipher, even a non-entity besides in her relationship to West, in response to Branigan.
“Come to think of it, I don’t know if I can conjure up an image of what Bianca looks like alone,” Branigan mentioned. “She’s always by Kanye’s side. In the public eye, she is always always, always in relationship to Kanye.”
The world first heard about Censori in December 2022, a month after West’s divorce from Kardashian was finalized, The Minimize reported. West shared a observe to Instagram known as “Censori Overload,” implying that some lady named Censori had grew to become his newest muse.
Censori and West had been first photographed collectively in January 2023, with TMZ initially figuring out her as a “mystery woman” and The Minimize noting that she was extra lined up and dressed usually in these early photos. Censori’s LinkedIn web page mentioned that she graduated from the College of Melbourne with a grasp’s diploma in structure and commenced working for West’s design firm, Yeezy, as “an architectural designer” in November 2020, The Minimize reported. It’s not clear if she ever truly labored as an architect, however the New Yorker reported in 2024 that she was working for West in some capability in a narrative that examined his damaging rework of an iconic Malibu seaside dwelling.
In the meantime, again in early 2023, stories started to counsel that the 2 had married in “some sort of wedding ceremony,” with the Day by day Mail finally confirming in October of that 12 months that they’d in truth gotten legally married, although their marriage license is “confidential,” The Minimize mentioned.
MILAN, ITALY – FEBRUARY 23: Kanye West and Bianca Censori attend the Marni Fall/Winter 2024 Vogue Present in the course of the Milan Vogue Week – Womenswear Fall/Winter 2024-2025 on February 23, 2024 in Milan, Italy. (Photograph by Alessandro Levati/Getty Photos for Marni Srl)
That summer season, West and Censori started trying to garner consideration for what gave the impression to be his styling of her in sheer body-stockings and different outfits that had been fairly revealing, The Minimize reported. West’s alleged trend decisions for Censori reportedly prompted an indignant response from Kardashian, who advised West “to never let Bianca dress like” that round their 4 kids, the Day by day Mail reported in February 2024. To Censori’s credit score, she has solely ever been photographed with West’s younger kids, “almost always comically covered up” in trench coats or fur hats, The Minimize mentioned.
However Censori’s public shows of near-nudity additionally reportedly prompted alarm from her family and friends in Australia over the previous two years. In interviews with the Day by day Mail and The Solar, sources near Censori expressed concern about West’s “controlling ways,” together with about what she ate. Associates advised the Day by day Mail saying they staged an intervention to persuade her to depart him, whereas a supply advised The Solar: “He is a very difficult person to be around and work for, and Bianca has been one of the most patient people ever to deal with him.”
However as a lot as they’ve been the topic of breakup rumors in current months, their Grammy Awards look makes it appear to be their relationship is again on observe, alongside along with her public shows of nakedness.
