Kanye West's public turmoil continued Friday, when Business of Fashion reported that "Balenciaga has officially ended its relationship with Ye, [formerly known as Kanye West]."
The luxury fashion brand made the decision after "his controversial appearance on the podcast Drink Champs released last week, where he falsely claimed that George Floyd wasn't murdered but killed by fentanyl and made even more antisemitic remarks," Rolling Stone notes.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The rapper's latest controversy began brewing after he wore a "White Lives Matter" t-shirt, drawing criticism from other notable people in the fashion industry including Tremaine Emory, creative director for Supreme — whom Ye also made a dig at during a separate incident, the Daily Mail notes.
Separately, his recent antisemitic tweets got him booted from Twitter and Instagram. West soon entered an agreement to buy Parler, the social media platform used by conservatives and especially supporters of former President Donald Trump as an alternative to Twitter. "In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves," West said.
This isn't the rapper's only business relationship that has ended recently. According to BoF, Gap also abruptly ended its partnership with him back in September.
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Crossword: August 23, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
