Balenciaga cuts ties with Kanye West amid ongoing scandals

A huge fashion house and one of Kanye’s longstanding creative partners has cut ties with the rapper over his recent anti-Semitic remarks.

Balenciaga is the latest fashion brand to dump Kanye West after he went off the rails with bizarre anti-Semitic statements this month.

Balenciaga’s parent, Kering said in a statement to WWD, “Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.”

The French company did not elaborate further, WWD reported.

The rapper, who changed his name to Ye last year, is rapidly losing big name fashion houses – and even his bank, JP Morgan – that had clamoured to work with him in recent years as sales at his Yeezy brand surged, reports the New York Post.

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West, pictured here at the Balenciaga Womenswear Spring/Summer 2023 show in Paris, has had a longstanding relationship with the fashion house. Picture: Anthony Ghnassia/Getty Images

Now, they are under pressure to denounce him as he leans into his offensive comments, including a threat on Twitter to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” claiming that Jews “have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”

The heated rhetoric followed backlash against his controversial, surprise Yeezy fashion show in Paris this month featuring T-shirts emblazoned with ‘White Lives Matter’ slogans with the Pope’s face on the front.

West wore matching “White Lives Matter” shirts with Candace Owens. Picture: Instagram

West has also been locked out of his social media accounts on Instagram and Twitter.

In September, West pulled the plug on his 10-year deal with The Gap, claiming that the retailer didn’t follow through on its promises to him to release certain styles and open dedicated Yeezy Gap stores.

But Gap executives told employees over the summer that the company was not “aligned” with West and that the company has decided to “wind down its partnership” with West.

West, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2016, may also lose his partnership with Adidas, which said its deal with West was “under review” after his White Lives Matter show.

But the German brand’s denouncement is not coming fast enough for some.

StopAntisemitism, a watchdog group, fired off a letter to Adidas honchos on Friday stating, “It has been two weeks since Ye began spewing Jew hatred and Adidas’ continued partnership with him – worth more than a billion dollars – greenlights his behaviour,” the group’s executive director, Liora Rez wrote.

“Although the Dassler family is no longer involved with the brand, the Adidas history is fraught with the same Jew hatred, that of Hitler and the Nazism,” Rez added. “Honour the survivors of the Holocaust and all they had to endure by taking a stand to make sure that history does not repeat itself.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission.