Kanye West is back on the Yeezy runway, four years after the Paris shirt scandal

Kanye West is modelling for Yeezy again. This time, the only thing people are talking about is the outfit, and the family photo afterwards.

The show, called Yeezy Season 01, took place on Wednesday, 4 November, at the brand's flagship store in Los Angeles, Yeezy Droam 1. It is his first runway appearance in four years.

What happened?

West, who is 49 and legally known as Ye, wore a head-to-toe black look: a leather jacket, matching leather trousers and boots. The one flashy detail was a huge gold belt buckle shaped like a tiger.

His four children with Kim Kardashian were there: North, 13, Saint, 10, Chicago, 8, and Psalm, 7. They posed with him once he came off the runway, in a family picture that has been rare since the divorce. His wife, the artist Bianca Censori, who was one of Yeezy's designers when they quietly married in 2023, also joined the photo.

It matters because West is often seen with North, but much less with the three younger kids. North kept to her own style: long fantasy-blue hair, coloured lenses and an avant-garde black raincoat.

Why does this feel like a comeback?

Because the last time he walked for Yeezy was in Paris in October 2022, wearing a 'White Lives Matter' shirt. The backlash was huge. Weeks later, Adidas ended its Yeezy partnership over his antisemitic and offensive remarks, and production and sales stopped.

In January this year, West apologised publicly in an announcement in The Wall Street Journal. "I am deeply ashamed of my actions," he said. He blamed his bipolar disorder, which he links to a 2002 car accident that broke his jaw and, he says, injured the right frontal lobe of his brain.

And the tour?

He then announced a European tour, and it did not go smoothly. The UK government blocked his entry in April, which cost him a headline slot at London's Wireless Festival. In France he cancelled first, after Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said he was looking for legal ways to stop the show.

A Swiss venue owned by Basel football club pulled out, saying it could not offer him a platform in line with its values. In Poland, the stadium backed out after the culture minister's warning about the country's Holocaust history.

Madrid did go ahead. In July he played the Metropolitano stadium to 65,000 people.

What's next?

The name "Season 01" suggests this is a fresh start for the brand after the four-year break. For now, that is all the show tells us.