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He has had a longstanding relationship with Balenciaga's Artistic Director Demna, who was appointed to the company's lead creative role in October 2015. The pair had collaborated on several projects, including creative for Ye's Yeezy brand and his former partnership with Gap, Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga. The collaboration between Gap and Ye ended in September 2022.
Balenciaga has ended its relationship with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, following the entertainer's continued controversial behavior, which includes a growing list of antisemitic statements. Following the release of parent company Kering's Q3 2022 earnings on Oct. 20, 2022, the company noted that "Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist" in response to a question from WWD regarding the partnership.
Recently Ye has been building a network of more conservative personalities; on Oct. 17, he agreed to buy the traditional social media app Parler. Owens' husband, George Farmer, serves as CEO of Parler's parent company Parlement Technologies.
Ye's partnership with Adidas also has come under scrutiny following the company's decision on Oct. 6, 2022, to place its relationship "under review." However, the athletic lifestyle brand has taken no additional action, and Adidas decided to reconsider its partnership after Ye publicly criticized CEO Kasper Rørsted.
Ye responded in an Instagram post that has since been deleted, stating, "F——– ADIDAS I AM ADIDAS."
Amid his struggling business relationships, Ye is also in the hot seat for spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric and false claims about the manner of George Floyd's death on a recent episode of the podcast Drink Champs.
Earlier this week, Roxie Washington, the mother of Floyd's daughter, filed a $250 million lawsuit against Ye for "harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress."
While speaking on the podcast, Ye said Floyd's death was caused by fentanyl–rather than convicted murderer Derek Chauvin cutting off Floyd's air supply for eight minutes on video.
Kanye said, “they hit [George] with the fentanyl, if you look, the guys’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”