Balenciaga & Anna Wintour cut ties with Kanye West following his hate speech

Kanye West is in the middle of a significant manic episode. It should be emphasized: Kanye’s bipolar disorder is not the reason why he’s suddenly saying racist, bigoted and anti-Semitic crap, but it’s a factor. What’s unique about this moment is that this time, Kanye has alienated almost everyone “on his side,” the people who normally would have looked out for him and gotten him some help, or enabled him in various ways. Kim Kardashian has cut her ties with him. So has Donald Trump. Reportedly, Kanye’s team is scattered, and he’s already fired several of his closest associates. Now we’re coming to the point where Kanye will be paying for this financially and culturally for years to come. Last week, Balenciaga severed ties with him.

Balenciaga has severed its ties with Ye. Following the publication of its third-quarter results on Thursday, parent company Kering said the French fashion house would no longer be working on projects with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has made increasingly controversial public comments in recent weeks, including anti-Semitic threats.

“Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist,” Kering said in a response to a query from WWD. It did not elaborate further.

The “Stronger” singer opened Balenciaga’s summer 2023 show, held in a mud pit during Paris Fashion Week, wearing what looked like battle gear, including a branded mouthguard shielding his teeth. The image has been removed from Balenciaga’s website.

[From WWD]

Keep in mind, Balenciaga was fine with collaborating with Kanye following his “slavery was a choice” sh-t and after his MAGA meltdowns and his 2020 ratf–ker political campaign. The anti-Kanye thing is a bandwagon too, just like the pro-Kanye thing was for years. Still, it’s notable that people are finally acknowledging that lines have been crossed and there’s no coming back. Anna Wintour apparently feels the same way:

A Vogue spokesperson told Page Six exclusively on Friday that neither the magazine nor its editor-in-chief Anna Wintour intend to work with Kanye West again after his anti-Semitic rants and support for the White Lives Matter cause.

Wintour, 72, has had a long and close relationship with the rapper-turned-designer, 45. She first invited him to her annual Met Gala in 2009 before featuring him and now-ex-wife Kim Kardashian on the cover in 2014 after their wedding. Just last month, Wintour modeled the Yeezy founder’s new sunglasses line in press images sent out to promote the shades — even after he publicly bullied Kardashian online about their children.

And then on Oct. 4, Wintour sent her longtime close pal, Baz Luhrmann, to film the reconciliation between West and one of her editors, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, after he mocked her fashion sense because she criticized him for wearing a White Lives Matter T-shirt at his Paris fashion show.

But on Friday, sources told us the fashion royal is finally ready to cut the Grammy winner loose after he made a series of stunning threats against Jewish people, and then aggressively doubled down on them after he was given the opportunity to apologize.

“Anna has had enough,” an insider told us, adding, “She has made it very clear inside Vogue that Kanye is no longer part of the inner circle.”

[From Page Six]

Wintour’s pro-Kanye stance also lasted too long – she should have been out of Kanye’s camp years ago, but better late than never. I do wonder about all of these fashion people though, and whether their newfound rejection of Kanye will be reversed in six months. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, another piece of Kanye news: he’s hired two new lawyers, one for his long-running divorce and one for his business interests. He hired Camille Vasquez for his business – some people might remember her as Johnny Depp’s lawyer, when Depp sued Amber Heard. He will likely need a bigger legal team because George Floyd’s family is now suing Kanye for the statements he made, lying about Floyd’s death/murder. Kanye hired Bob Cohen as his latest divorce lawyer – Cohen represented Melinda Gates in her divorce. The revolving door of divorce lawyers has been an interesting sideshow – clearly, no self-respecting divorce lawyer wants to stick with Kanye, given what he’s saying about and doing to Kim.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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