Bianca Censori caused a stir at the Grammys this year when she appeared on the red carpet wearing a barely-there dress.
The Australian architectural designer and model, 30, arrived at the ceremony with her partner, the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
Ye was nominated alongside Ty Dolla $Ign, Rich The Kid, and Playboi Carti in the Best Rap Song category for “Carnival.” The last time Ye attended the Grammys was in 2015.
“Nude” dresses are nothing new on the red carpet, but Censori’s provocative look seemed to go a step further than other past revealing outfits at major awards events.
Her barely perceptible garment went viral and also raised questions on social media about indecent exposure laws.
Read on to learn more about what Censori wore to the Grammys and whether she could face possible legal ramifications tied to their red carpet appearance.
What did Bianca Censori wear to the Grammys, and why did it spark concern?
Censori arrived at the Grammys on Feb. 2 wearing a long black coat. She coordinated with her partner, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who also wore an all-black ensemble.
As they posed for photographers, Censori slipped off the jacket and revealed a skintight, fully see-through dress.
Ye shared a photo of the dress on Instagram on Feb. 4 with the caption, “THE INVISIBLE DRESS.”
The dress provoked major discussion and backlash on social media, raising questions about the nature of Ye and Censori’s relationship and if the outfit — which was designed by his brand, Yeezy — was her choice.
Psychologist Channa Bromley told TODAY.com clothing is a “a form of self-expression, autonomy, and identity.”
Bromley suggests Censori’s Grammys is a “case study” into a partner potentially exerting undue influence over another’s choice of clothes. If the choice of outfit were Censori’s, Bromley says it would be “marked by confidence, ease and ownership of the moment.” If it wasn’t, Bromley says you might see “micro-expressions of discomfort, hesitation, forced compliance.”
“In controlling relationships, dress codes can serve as both a test of submission and a display of ownership. The more extreme the shift, the more likely it’s a symptom of something deeper than just evolving style,” Bromley says.
Bromley says the video of her disrobing may strike viewers as “unsettling” because of the “psychology behind it.”
“The lack of natural confidence, the robotic compliance, the vacant expression, it doesn’t read as a woman fully in charge of her choices,” she says.
Psychologist Kelsey Latimer says that changing clothing style in a relationship isn’t necessarily a red flag. “Are you making choices because you want to? Has your style simply changed and you like trying something new?” she asks. But “making changes in one’s attire out of fear of what will happen if you don’t” or “worry that your partner will get jealous that others might admire you” are signs of an unhealthy relationship.
Latimer says she’s not surprised the outfit provoked such a response and questions into Censori’s well-being. “For most of us, wearing something that is extremely exposing would create a sense of vulnerability so if the person themselves is not making that choice then that can lead to a sense of physical or emotional vulnerability and lack of internal safety,” she says.
The message a nude dress sends
Revealing looks are nothing new on the red carpet; other stars, including Chrissy Teigen, Shakira and Victoria Monét, sported dresses with sheer or cutout elements at the Grammys this year.
Stars in general have been pushing the envelope for decades with daring looks and in one sense, Censori’s latest look is just the continuation of that trend, fashion historian and professor Deirdre Clemente told TODAY.com in an email.
“Censori’s nude dress is the culmination of more than a century of ‘barely there’ eveningwear,” she said. “Today, her dress is as shocking in its extremeness, as the dresses of the 1920s were 100 years ago.”
However, even today’s “nude” looks generally contain some degree of coverage, however scant, whereas Censori’s dress gave her the appearance of being fully naked.
In this sense, Censori’s dress differs from the risqué looks of other famously provocative style icons.
“Why Censori’s dress is different from previous incarnations of Marilyn Monroe or Kim Kardasian, is that it breaks a fundamental rule of fashion. And it does that on purpose,” Clemente said.
“For millennia, fashion has been used to simultaneously ‘hide’ and ‘flaunt’ the female form. It is in that tension that fashion exists,” she continued. “Censori’s dress takes away the tension between ‘wondering” and ‘knowing’ that has defined evening wear for centuries.”
Will Censori face any legal consequences for her look?
Following the Grammys, some wondered online whether Censori had broken any laws with her daring outfit.
“Why isn’t Bianca Censori being arrested for indecent exposure?” one person wrote on X.
“If someone doesn’t consent to seeing you naked….That is called INDECENT EXPOSURE and it is a CRIME,” another person commented. “I never consented to seeing this woman naked and I’m sure a lot of people with their children watching didn’t either. This is really disturbing.”
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to TODAY.com that “an investigation has not been opened” into Censori’s Grammys look.
In this situation, a criminal charge is very unlikely, Dmitry Gorin, a criminal defense attorney with the Los Angeles law firm Eisner Gorin LLP, told TODAY.com.
“Somebody would have to report the offense to the police, and I just see Los Angeles police having plenty of other work than investigating indecent exposure,” he said.
Besides, even if someone did decide to bring charges, Gorin says Censori’s nude look does not meet the elements of Penal Code 314, the California statute that prohibits indecent exposure.
The code states that to be considered “indecent exposure,” an act “must be done in a manner that the defendant had intent to draw public attention to their genitals for sexual gratification or to offend another person.”
Gorin argues that in Censori’s case, context matters. He argues she was appearing at the Grammys in the capacity of a model, meaning that it would be expected that she would display her body in some way.
“I think in this situation, she’s a model, she knew she’d be getting a lot of attention,” Gorin said. “If she was ever charged, her lawyer would say, ‘Look, this is just a model showing off her body.’”
He also noted that because she was appearing as a model and public figure, there was likely a secondary “commercial” motivation for her red carpet appearance, and that it was unlikely she was driven solely by an intent to “sexually gratify” or “offend.”
Gorin also points out that the Grammys are known as a place where people try out daring looks on the red carpet.