Next to a nude Bianca Censori, Kanye should have gone without his pants too

The appearance of a near-naked Bianca Censori in a sheer slip and high heels on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards was not as shocking or unsettling as what Ye (the rapper formerly known as Kanye West) was wearing.

While Melbourne-born architect Censori bares her physical foundations in the photographs, Ye stands fully dressed in a black T-shirt, pants and sunglasses. It is an image of a Svengali in security guard cosplay and his muse. It is an image of control.

Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Bianca Censori at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.Credit: AP

Footage of an uncomfortable Censori being encouraged by Ye to disrobe for the cameras encourages perceptions of an uneven power dynamic.

Nudity can be liberating, but this paparazzi-bait moment crafts a different image. If Ye had been equally exposed, in see-through Skims underpants and Yeezy sneakers, the stunt would have been a fashion moment worthy of closer examination, rather than a familiar exercise in male entertainment.

A naked Ye and Censori together would have celebrated equality, at a time when the bodies of women in the US are under increased scrutiny with restrictions on birth control and abortion, in what would have been a statement on the wannabe emperor’s new clothes and his queen.

Instead, the unsettling image comes into sharper focus when examining Ye’s past romantic relationships with Amber Rose, Kim Kardashian and Julia Fox. In interviews, Rose has referred to Ye’s commitment to picking her outfits, while both Kardashian and Fox have spoken about him replacing their entire wardrobes.

All of these women accept that Ye has taste, along with mental health issues. It was his aesthetic discipline of beige, baggy and utilitarian pieces, along with clinging bike shorts, that helped build his fashion empire Yeezy. But it was his lack of judgment that led to a series of antisemitic comments in October 2022, which ended his lucrative relationships with Adidas and Balenciaga. Sunday’s appearance at the Grammys is another example of his questionable judgment.

Luxury fashion is largely dictated by men like Ye and other designers, such as Yves Saint Laurent, John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier, who have used nudity as a tool of titillation, occasionally nodding to liberation.

Five years after Saint Laurent sent chic sheer blouses down the runway at the beginning of the sexual revolution in 1966, he dropped his pants and posed naked for an advertisement for the release of his first perfume.

Galliano’s first collection for Givenchy successfully used sheer techniques to echo women’s liberation from corsets and control in the 1800s. Gaultier played with male and female nudity with cheeky trompe l’oeil prints in 1996, recently revived in collaborations with Y/Project and Lotta Volkova.

Fashion statements: Coco Chanel (left) in one of her suits in 1929, Jean Paul Gaultier’s nude “body morph” shirt reimagined in 2022, Pamela Anderson at the Jacquemus menswear show in Paris in January.Credit: Getty Images

But moments of true liberation – where less clothing has meant much more – have come from women.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Coco Chanel’s loosened women’s corsetry and girdles. Chanel’s use of jersey, previously reserved for men’s underwear, encouraged freedom of movement, but it was her popularisation of pockets that continues to have an impact on women’s lives.

“She designed for herself,” co-curator Miren Arzalluz said at the opening of the Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto exhibition at the NGV in 2021. “We always talk about pockets which she introduced early on.

“Being relaxed in public was a privilege of men, so this was radical in itself.”

Saint Laurent sent leg-baring mini skirts down the runway in 1959, followed by André Courrèges in 1964, but two years later, British designer Mary Quant made them the uniform of the swinging ’60s.

Like Chanel, Quant was designing for herself out of practicality, focusing on female desire for freedom rather than any male desires for a generous glimpse of thigh.

“I liked my skirts short because I wanted to run and catch the bus to get to work,” Quant said in 2014. “It was that feeling of freedom and liberation.”

Male designers have made efforts to flatten the fashion playing field with shows featuring male nudity, most famously Rick Owens’ 2015 collection of “flesh flash” robes with peek-a-boo holes revealing penises. But these robes have not featured on the red carpet.

Ye had the choice to join Censori in the nude, but made sure that all eyes were on his wife, without completely leaving the picture.

Censori’s education and career suggest an intelligent woman, but a display of independence rather than Ye by her side might have saved this look.

In January, Ye posted on social media a photo of a naked Pamela Anderson from 2008, after they worked together on the music video for his 2006 single Touch The Sky.

Rather than exploiting her body, he should pay attention to how the former Baywatch star has escaped expectations surrounding nudity and make-up, reclaiming her image and championing a truly independent style.

When Anderson makes these truly powerful fashion statements, fully clothed, she is on her own, without a man in the picture. This is the message that should last as long as Chanel’s pockets.

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