Inside the LA life of Kanye West’s Australian wife Bianca Censori
From partying with Liz Cambage to dreaming of designing a cemetery, this is the untold story of Bianca Censori, Kanye West’s wife. See the photos.
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Exclusive: There may not be a more photographed person without a Wikipedia page than Bianca Censori.
Eight months since the Australian architect married her boss, controversial rapper Kanye West, she remains a mystery to the world even though her face is all over the news.
Censori’s social media pages were wiped when their relationship was revealed in January and she has not spoken to the press since, leaving fans to parse every photo of her – the risque skin-tight outfits, the public displays of affection – for insights into her identity.
Spend some time in her adopted home of Los Angeles, however, and you find some clues.
Censori moved there in 2020, having completed her masters at Melbourne University and worked for three years at DP Toscano Architects.
Her new job, as West’s lead architect at his fashion and design empire Yeezy, was a far cry from the Collingwood firm.
Speaking last year to students at the University of Malta, Censori described how she crafted “the Donda language”, West’s architectural aesthetic named in honour of his late mother.
In a guest lecture on Zoom, together with Yeezy collaborator and friend Tanil Raif, Censori showcased the unusual projects she had designed: a Californian house resting on giant rocks, a sound stage in the Saudi desert, a set for West’s Sunday Service ceremony in Georgia enabling him to literally walk on water in the middle of a lake.
The work spurred Censori and Raif to develop their own design ethos, which they dubbed “primitive futurism”.
“The future is never what we expect,” Censori told the students.
It’s unclear what she expected. But seven months later, the rapper now known as Ye released a new song, the lyrics of which were seen as a response to the backlash to his unhinged anti-Semitism, including praising Hitler and the Nazis.
The real meaning was in the title: “Censori Overload.”
“The Bible said I can’t have any more sex till marriage,” he rapped.
A month after that, with West’s divorce from Kim Kardashian finalised, he and Censori tied the knot at a luxury resort in Utah. While the pair did not file the official paperwork, they were soon spotted wearing rings at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, igniting a media storm.
Censori has said nothing publicly about their relationship, except when a TikTok user filmed himself asking for her phone number in a shop, prompting her to flash her ring and exclaim: “I’m married!” She did not respond to an interview request for this story and closed her Instagram account after briefly returning to the platform last month.
In LA, the newlyweds have been renting a luxury West Hollywood penthouse, spending tens of thousands of dollars a month while West’s $US57m Malibu mansion rots by the beach.
“We’ve never seen anything happening there,” a neighbour said.
“It’s been deserted the whole time.”
Instead, they have concentrated on resurrecting the career of a man who was once among the world’s most influential artists and designers, until his horrific hate speech cost him his reputation and billions of dollars in deals with brands including Adidas and Gap.
West has rented a warehouse to be Yeezy’s headquarters, while he also explored taking over part of the Cornerstone Christian Church to make clothes, hold classes for his Donda Academy private school, and even plot his 2024 presidential campaign. (He received 60,000 votes in 2020 and is now advised by far-right figures.)
Censori was spotted attending a service in June in a bizarre black outfit that covered her head. She modelled a similar full-body, skin-tight ensemble there in April for a shoot with Gadir Rajab, a stylist and photographer who is a close friend from Melbourne.
Rajab – whose client list ranges from Kylie Minogue to Justin Bieber – appears to be a key influence on Censori’s style, which critics claim is a publicity stunt driven by West. (He recently filed a trademark for the “sock shoes” he has been wearing.)
Rajab joined the couple in Japan earlier this year, along with North – the rapper’s eldest child with Kardashian – and Censori’s parents and sister Angelina. Last month, Rajab photographed Censori in front of a helicopter in Italy.
Among the fans of his revealing shots of Censori is Liz Cambage, the Australian basketball outcast who parted ways with LA’s WNBA team last year, and was recently pictured partying with Censori in LA.
According to Us Weekly, West and Censori believe their fashion designs “are going to be culture-shifting”, having gathered inspiration during their European summer.
West is also working on new music to be released soon, with his wife reportedly joining him in the studio.
It is unclear if Censori will continue her side hustle with Raif, which also included a sculpture to serve as a “sacred portal for entrance” at the Cult Gaia clothing store in LA, and a “speculative digital piece” of a woman bending over for Melbourne Design Week last year.
Speaking to the University of Malta students, she said her ultimate project would be designing a cemetery.
“I have an affinity for taboos in architecture,” Censori said. She might break a few more.
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Originally published as Inside the LA life of Kanye West’s Australian wife Bianca Censori
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