Kanye West and Bianca Censori at the Grammy Awards ahead of the red carpet. Photo: FRAZER HARRISON
You might have seen the name Bianca Censori floating around the internet this week.
She is the wife of one of the most famous rappers of all time, Kanye West, and she has a tendency to wear very little clothing in public - think duct tape over nipples, sheer stockings with no underwear and a clear, plastic raincoat with nothing underneath.
It now seems the duo have been working their way up to a truly bizarre moment that was revealed at the Grammy Awards this week.
What happened at the Grammys?
Censori and West, the artist known as Ye, walked on the red carpet outside Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles in front of a wall of photographers - him in a casual black t-shirt and jeans with sunglasses and her in a floor-length black fluffy coat. He whispered in her ear; she said something in response and then turned her back to the cameras. Censori disrobed, revealing a sheer skin-toned mini dress.
In what appeared to be an act of theatre, Censori turned to face the cameras showing that she was essentially standing on the red carpet at a major awards show naked.
In the days that have followed the circus, lip readers have suggested to the Daily Mail that West told Censori: "You're making a scene now."
The tabloid press then claimed that she nodded her head and he told her: "Make a scene, I'll say it'll make so much sense." He added: "Drop it behind you and then turn, I got you." She then tells him: "Alright, let's go."
An image of Censori's Grammy dress posted to Kanye West's Instagram account. Photo: Ye/Instagram
Was it a form of shock and awe art? Part of a brilliant marketing campaign for West's fashion and media brand Yeezy? Is Censori a puppet with strings pulled by West, who is known for strange behaviour and his struggle with mental illness? With very little official information coming from Camp West Censori, the world is left to theorise what on earth is going on.
Who is Kanye West?
Kanye West first came to fame as a rapper and album producer. He is behind the fashion and media brand Yeezy. In 2014, he married the reality TV star Kim Kardashian and they had four children before their divorce in 2022.
He has previously aligned himself politically with Donald Trump. West's anti-Semitic remarks in 2022 led to Adidas ending its lucrative footwear partnership with Yeezy.
In 2021, he offically changed his name to Ye.
Who is Bianca Censori?
Censori, 30, is an architect and model from Melbourne, Australia who happens to look like Ye's previous wife. Censori studied architecture at the University of Melbourne from 2013 to 2017, gaining her bachelor's degree before going on to do her masters in the same subject in 2019 and 2020, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She ran her own jewellery brand, Nylons Jewellery, from 2013 to 2017 and worked as a student architect at a firm in Melbourne from 2017 until 2020.
In 2020, she took a role as an architectural designer at Yeezy, which is located in LA. West was still married to Kardashian at this time.
Kayne West with his former wife Kim Kardashian. Photo: AFP
When did Censori get together with West?
It's unclear. Kardashian filed for divorce in February 2021, according to People magazine, and the divorce was finalised by November of that year.
In January of 2023, tabloid website TMZ declared West married again in a "Secret Wedding with Mystery Woman!". That woman was Censori.
What were Censori's sartorial choices leading up to this?
Censori's style has always pushed the envelope, but what she wore took a more intense turn since her marriage to West.
In the last 12 months, her public outfits include but are not limited to:
- Skin-coloured tape strapped over her nipples like suspenders. As celebrity commentary pointed out, the look was similar to Kardashian's boob tape bra photo in 2016.
- A clear, plastic rain poncho with what appeared to be nothing underneath. However, the cinched plastic did more to cover her breasts and bits, unlike the Grammy dress.
- A skin-tone full-body suit that covered her from head to toe including her face. West has also gone out in public on numerous occasions with his face fully covered.
- During a summer holiday in Italy last year, Censori paraded numerous sheer, clingy, and/or brief outfits including a very high-cut bodysuit with oodles of side cleavage. It's worth noting that while on said Italian trip, the couple were accused of some obscene public acts. Paparazzi images appear to show West sitting on a boat in Italy with his pants down. The boat company denounced their behaviour telling the Daily Mail the couple were no longer welcome aboard their boats.
Kanye West and Bianca Censori ahead of the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. Photo: MATT WINKELMEYER
Why are people still talking about it?
The Washington Post's style reporters wonder whether Censori's outfit was even that trail-blazing given some of the other sheer looks on the red carpet we've seen in the past (think J-Lo back in 2000). The reporters did note that they had hardly seen Censori other than by West's side and had never heard her speak.
CNN outlined the history of sheer dressing. Even for celebrities in the 1930s, sheer dressing was a thing, using "expertly placed embroidery to give the impression of bare skin while avoiding actual displays of nudity." However, the article pointed out that Cesnori took the seemingly small leap "from naked dress to plain naked."
The coattails of the story focus on who is deciding what Censori wears in public - Censori, West or a bit of both. Some commentary has circled back to the experience of other women West has been with and his control over their wardrobe.
Actress Julia Fox dated West in 2022 for a few weeks. She detailed her experience in her 2023 memoir Down the Drain. In the book she refers someone she calls "the artist" and describes how he offered to hire her a stylist, suggested she get a "boob job" and that she needed to sign a non-disclosure agreement to continue the relationship. He filled her wardrobe with clothes he approved of (Fox also appeared at the Grammys on Sunday in a sheer mini dress albeit with underwear).
West's former wife, Kardashian, detailed a similar experience in an interview on TV talk show Live with Kelly and Michael in 2015. Kardashian and West were newlyweds at the time and in the interview, Kardashian described West as her best friend who also had a strong opinion of what she wore. When they first started dating, Kanye edited Kardashian's closet and filled it with new clothes West wanted her to wear.
As for Censori and West's nude stunt at the Grammys, its still unclear what the payoff is. Since the awards show, Censori has reactivated her Instagram account, posting a single image of her in the nude dress. West also posted an image of the dress on his Instagram account. The dress does not appear to be stocked on the Yeezy website.
West commented in a now-deleted Instagram post that "FOR CLARITY, MY WIFE IS THE MOST GOOGLED PERSON ON THE PLANET CALLED EARTH," according to E News.
There has been speculation that West and Censori were denied entry into the Grammys following their red-carpet theatrics. Raj Kapoor, the executive producer of the awards show, told the celebrity magazine People, that although West was nominated for an award, his appearance on the red carpet was unexpected.
West was nominated for the best rap song for "Carnival" from his Vultures 1 album. The award, which he didn't win, was given out at a ceremony before the main televised event.
Because West was not nominated in any of the main categories, he did not have a seat for the primetime event. Rather than being kicked out, West and Censori walked the red carpet, got in a car and left, Kapoor said.
