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Does Kanye West Dress His Wives And Girlfriends? 

West has a lot to say about a woman's wardrobe
Kim Kardashian, then wife of Kanye West with the rapper at a Vanity Fair event.
Image: Getty

The internet went into meltdown after Kanye West’s wife, Bianca Censori, appeared naked on the 2025 Grammys Red Carpet on February 4. 

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It was alleged West and Censori were paying homage to the album art on West’s Vulters 1 record but the moment was disturbing for onlookers. Everyone from American day time television hosts, to Republican political pundits, women’s advocates and social media users have been ripping apart Bianca Censori’s Grammys outfit and speculating the red carpet look is a sign of a deeply troubled relationship.

The incident has also called attention to Kanye West’s history of “styling” his wives and girlfriends.

Both his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and ex-girlfriends Julia Fox and Amber Rose have been open about their experiences of being “dressed” by West.

So, how much control does Kanye West exercise over what the women in his life wear? 

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Does Kanye West Design Bianca Censori’s Clothes? 

Kanye West with Bianca Censori at the 2025 Grammys
Image: Getty

It has been reported that the rapper posted to Instagram on the night of the Grammys, seemingly taking credit for Censori’s look. The Tab reported that he had posted: “Custom Couture Grammy dress for the most beautiful ever. My love, my best friend, my wife.” 

Similar to Kim Kardashian, based on Instagram, Bianca Censori before Kanye West was a different style proposition. She seemed to favour figure-hugging, sultry looks. 

Her wardrobe changed when she hooked up with Kanye, switching plunging necklines and bustier tops for athleisurewear, lingerie and sheer body stockings. In March 2024, Complex posted an interview with designer Laura Beham, one-half of Zurich-based brand Prototypes, who claimed to be part of Bianca Censori’s styling team. “She’s very involved in the process. Bianca knows exactly what she would like to wear, and it’s us executing and realising the vision,” Beham tells Complex

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Bianca Censori and Kanye West

The interview received backlash from Kanye West’s Yeezy camp. The brand’s statement read: “Laura Beham is not, in fact, any kind of style advisor to Bianca Censori, who is wholly in the driving seat when it comes to her fashion choices, and she never has been. Beham is attempting to take credit for outfits she had zero involvement in choosing.” The statement claimed Laura Beham and Callum Pigeon had been fired from the Yeezy brand months earlier and had contact with Kanye West and Bianca Censori only “sporadically” since then. 

It’s never been confirmed or denied whether Kany West dresses his wife, but given West’s historic influence on his wives’ and girlfriends’ wardrobes, we can assume he has had a hand in Bianca Censori’s transformation. 

Here’s What Kim Kardashian, Julia Fox And Amber Rose have said about dating and being dressed by Kanye. 

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Kim Kardashian On Being Dressed By Kanye West

A papparazzi phtoo of Kanye West and wife Kim Kardashian
Imgage: Getty

According to Buzzfeed, Kanye West kicked off his relationship with Kim Kardashian by flying her to Paris for a styling session. Some might interpret this as a romantic gesture, but it took place after West spotted a paparazzi photo of her he didn’t like, and it seemed to set the tone for the rest of their relationship. 

In a 2018 episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kim Kardashian, then still married to West, said, “I always thought I had really good style—until I met my husband [Ye], and he told me that I had the worst style.” 

Kim Kardashian started dating Kanye West in 2012, and he was largely credited for giving the Kardashians their entre to fashion. Kardashian started dating West when he was still best known as a brilliant rapper and emerging designer (not anti-semite with multiple lawsuits against him). Her style transformation saw her embraced by the fashion community. She thanked her ex when she won “Fashion Icon” at the People’s Choice Awards. “Thank you, Kanye, for really introducing me to the fashion world.” 

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American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who had been reported to have expressed disdain for Kardashian, praised Kim in 2019 when she and her family became regulars on the Met Gala carpet and she achieved her second of three Vogue covers. “Kim of all of them I feel has changed the most,” she told Vogue, “I personally admire the way that she’s become a little more minimal in the way she’s dressing, and a little more covered.” 

Kanye West and wife Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala
Image: Getty

Kim Kardashian has said she is “grateful” to West’s influence on her style but has shared instances of cruel and controlling behaviour regarding her wardrobe.

In 2022, following their divorce, Kim Kardashian read out text messages from Kanye and recounted his reactions to her post-divorce wardrobe. She said he told her she looked like a “cartoon character” after dressing herself without his fashion advice. She then said West had called her after she attended the Wall Street Journal Magazine Innovators Award the year before. “He told me my career’s over. And then she showed me a picture of Marge Simpson wearing something similar.” She read a text from West which said: “The orange look made me so mad. Would’ve went to jail before I went out in that.” 

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In another episode, she described the lasting impacts of his criticism. “I got to a point where I would ask him for advice for everything – down to what I wear. Even now I’m having panic attacks like, what do I wear?” she said on the show. She added that her first experience attending the Met Gala without Kanye was scary and liberating. “[Now] it’s so fun and empowering to just try to do it on my own.” 

Julia Fox On Being Dressed By Kanye West

Julia Fox and Kanye West at Paris Fashion Week in 2022
Image: Getty

Kim Kardashian has always seemed careful to express gratitude to Kanye West, the father of her four children. Julia Fox, who briefly dated the rapper in early 2022, was less complimentary of his granular approach to her wardrobe. 

Fox chose to describe West only as “The Artist” in her memoir Down The Drain – the audience can conclude it is him because the events described line up with the very public record of their relationship. In the memoir, her relationship with “The Artist” is characterised  by pre-approved outfits and “transformations.” 

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In one anecdote, she described West contacting a stylist in the middle of their date because she was wearing an outfit he didn’t like. The stylist arrived at the restaurant, and Fox was escorted to the bathroom, where racks of clothes had been arranged. She was forced to choose something new and said the experience made her feel like a “show monkey.” 

On their second date, he presented Fox with a hotel room full of Diesel clothes designed by Glenn Martens. It was leaked to the press as a “Cinderella moment.” While trying on outfits Fox observed that one would look better without a bra. The Artist promptly offered to pay for a boob job. “The artist’s words cut through the air, sharp and unexpected, I look at myself in the mirror, taking in my post-baby body. They’re not so bad, I think to myself.” Fox declined. She then recounts an incident in which friends West hired as stylists arrived at her home to pack up all of her old clothes. “When they have their back turned, I pull things out for safekeeping.” West goes on to rent Fox a floor at high-end American department store Neiman Marcus because he purchased her so many new clothes they won’t fit in her small apartment and expresses unease as he starts to direct her stylists and once-friends without her. 

Fox says that her relationship with the artist slowly fell apart when he suggested she set “boundaries” with her friends after catching one of them wearing a pair of boots he gave her 

Amber Rose On Being Dressed By Kanye West 

Kanye West and Amber Rose at Paris Fashion Week in 2010
Image: Getty
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Amber Rose and Kanye West were first spotted together at the VMAs in 2009 and attended the Met Gala together the same year. In a 2009 interview with Elle, Amber Rose, who was styled by West for the shoot, described them as “fashion opposites. “He’ll pick out something, and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, God, I don’t like that at all.” 

“And then I’ll be like pick out something and he’ll be like, ‘Babe, just… no.” She said she favoured bright colours, while West liked nude and bone shades. “Like, bone is his favourite colour. I’m like, whose favourite colour is bone?” she said. 

She assured Elle that she was “not his Barbie”, recounting one incident in which she chose to wear a gown with a thigh-high slit instead of one West had selected for her for the Metropolitan Opera’s 125th Anniversary Gala. “I didn’t want to wear a long gown,” she said, “So then we get to the Met and everybody has a long gown. I was like, great. I didn’t know what the Met was!” 

Rose wore a long gown for the 2009 Met Gala and a simple white dress to the BET Awards later that year. 

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The couple broke up in 2010, and Amber Rose later claimed in a 2020 interview with Entertainment Tonight that Kanye West had been bullying her for a decade. She claimed that West publicly attacked and slut-shamed her after she ended their relationship and called him a narcissist. “That’s what narcissists do, right? You share two years with someone; you take them around the world, you buy the jewellery, you shout out to the world how much you love them and how much fun you have with this person and then the person decides that this is not what they want their life to be. I opted out.” 

Rose was referring to comments West about needing to take “30 showers” after being with her and comparing her to biblical prostitutes at a rally. “He just called me a prostitute at his rally,” she claimed. “Ten years later, just leave me alone. I don’t bother you. I don’t talk about you,” she added, noting that she only speaks about her ex when asked about him in interviews in an attempt to give a “good interview.”


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