Bianca Censori: beyond the nudity

Kanye West and his wife Bianca Censori's appearance on the Grammys' red carpet was unexpected by all accounts. They had gatecrashed, said The Times' Caitlin Moran. His former glittering music career is not so glittering now, hence the no-invite status. But it was his wife, an architect and former model from Australia, that everyone was looking at.

Lowering a long, fur coat and turning to face the photographers, Censori revealed she was naked except for a "fully transparent mini dress, and no underwear," said The Guardian's Moira Donegan. She appeared completely nude.

'Nowhere to hide'

But this isn't about how much of her body a young woman revealed, said Moran. After all, the Grammys is often "a very titty, bummy event". The concern is that we can't be sure if Censori is really ok with it.

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Since marrying West in 2023, she has rarely been seen without him, noted Donegan. She has shown form for fewer rather than more clothes, too. And the effect is "heightened by the proximity" of West, who is often clad in "too much clothing beside Censori's too little".

At the Grammys, Censori had "nowhere to hide" though. The practically non-existent dress gave her "no comfort or shelter". "'Make a scene,' West seems to be saying to her", said Moran. But the scene she makes is a depressing one and one, according to Page Six, that had them escorted from the building soon after.

'Sometimes things are what they look like'

At first glance, this is a woman "apparently brimming with body confidence", said Vogue's Raven Smith, but "there are concerns about this particular woman's silence: we've heard very little from Bianca during her Kanye tenure".

Indeed, said Donegan. "The exposure of Censori's body is contrasted with the enigma of her mind." Let's not jump to conclusions, though, said Smith. A woman can make "a zillion choices we wouldn't personally make ourselves and still not have that mean she's being coerced".

It would certainly play more easily on our mind to imagine Censori and West "partaking, together, in a critique of gender and celebrity", said Donegan. Seeing her as an artist allows us to view Censori as "something more hopeful and complicated than a victim of brutality", though she cautions, "sometimes things are what they look like".