How far does Bianca Censori have to go for someone to intervene?

At first, it was entertaining. Strange, yes, but you could simply roll your eyes, laugh a little, and write it off as trashy celebrity fodder. That changed on Sunday. Because the second someone steps out on a red carpet completely naked, well, you start to pay a little more attention. Yes, I’m talking about Bianca Censori, who attended the Grammy Awards in LA alongside her husband Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in a completely transparent dress.

For those unfamiliar with the 30-year-old Australian model, this might seem galling. But having followed Censori closely ever since she became involved with Ye, the 47-year-old rapper, I can safely say that this latest look was entirely inevitable; the next step in a series of outlandish sartorial stunts. Except now, instead of being something we can merely gawp and giggle over, it’s something that we should be worried about. It’s something many celebrity news pundits – myself included – have been concerned about for a while. But now, after another year’s worth of increasingly outrageous outfits, you have to wonder how much longer this can go on until someone intervenes.

First: some crucial context. Censori met Ye while working for the rapper’s brand collaboration with Adidas, Yeezy, as an “Architectural Designer”, whatever that means. By the end of 2022, they were officially an item, getting married in January 2023 just two months after Ye’s divorce from Kim Kardashian was finalised. They quickly began causing a stir with Censori’s outfits, which were almost always threadbare: there have been tights and tit tape, sheer raincoats, and a litany of other ensembles that can only be described as minuscule pieces of fabric. There was also, on one occasion, a cushion.

All this has been made more jarring by the fact that whenever Censori wears these looks, Ye is almost always right beside her, completely covered up. I’m talking layers upon layers; often, there are also sunglasses. The idea, one assumes, is that he remains completely hidden while she is entirely exposed. It’s impossible to know how much of this is Censori’s idea or Ye’s, but the rapper is known to have had a major hand in styling his partners, including Kardashian, who credited almost all of her wardrobe choices to her ex-husband for the duration of their seven-year marriage.

Meanwhile, Julia Fox, whom Ye dated before Censori, claimed that the musician once requested she change outfit mid-date and had his stylist bring her new clothing for her to change into in the restaurant bathroom. “I feel like he’s using me in some weird, twisted game,” Fox wrote of the relationship in her memoir, Down the Drain, referring to herself as a “pawn” in West’s “grand masterplan to get back at his ex-wife”.

So, what to think of the nude Grammys look that, according to some outlets, got the couple booted out of the ceremony altogether? Much has been made of the fact that, when she arrived, Censori was covered up with a full-length fur coat, which she dropped after a few words Ye whispered to her. Who knows what he actually said? But the fact that Censori revealed her completely naked body immediately afterwards feels undeniably chilling, and has unsurprisingly fuelled speculation among fans that the former model is being controlled by her husband.

This isn’t helped by the fact that we seldom hear anything from Censori herself. She hasn’t given an interview in years – and one with Hypebeast from 2021 has since been taken down. Consequently, we know nothing about her except the minutiae of her naked body given how much of it the public has now seen. She appears, for all intents and purposes, nothing but a mere mannequin, standing tall and silent, seemingly awaiting her next instruction on how to present herself.

You have to question the motivation behind all this. Because sure, showing up naked to an award ceremony sparks conversation and turns heads. But it does so for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps Ye and Censori are simply trying to stick it to the music industry by subverting social and sartorial norms. Why, though, would they want to isolate themselves like that, prompting coverage that is far from complimentary. Whatever renegade icon image they could be aspiring to is lost amid ample derision and mockery.

Besides, how much longer can this really go on for? Short of having sex on the red carpet, I’m not sure what else these two can do to further provoke our shock. This format is already tired; at this point, the only thing that would be groundbreaking would be to see Censori wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt. Or to see even an inch of Ye’s body that is literally never on display.

Contextualise it within the current hypersexualised landscape we seem to be operating within, where men are literally lining up to have sex with women they don’t know, and the shock value of it all seems even emptier. There’s no substance beneath it. It’s certainly not sexy or tantalising. It’s actually just quite unsettling.

Personally, I’m worried about Censori. I worry about what she’s consented to and why. I worry about her friends: does she have any? Who does she talk to aside from Ye? What does she walk around in at home? She’s only 30, has no public presence, and is now seemingly being used as a strange show pony for a rapper with a very controversial reputation, which is putting it mildly.

Whichever way you look at it, this is a young woman who is increasingly becoming known for nothing except her husband and her body. I don’t think it gets more dystopian than that.