Julia Fox has opened designer LaQuan Smith’s New York Fashion Week (NYFW) show on the same day she confirmed her breakup from rapper Kanye West.
The Uncut Gems star strode down the runway on Monday night in a high-neck, long-sleeve black evening gown that featured cutouts around her midriff, chest and back.
Smith told WWD that he chose Fox to open his show because she “has been my girl from Day One”, adding that the actor has supported his work “from my early days”.
“It’s not far-fetched. People anticipate coming to a LaQuan Smith show for a gag kind of moment, a little excitement,” he said.
“I was like now is the perfect time to do it, let’s just throw her in there. She looks incredible and I’m like I just want to have fun with it.”
The designer also used his show to pay tribute to the late Andre Leon Talley with a moment of silence for the legendary Vogue editor, who died on 19 January.
After the show at the Down Town Association in New York City, Fox commented on her split from West in a statement: “I love Kanye. We’re still very good friends and I wish him nothing but the best.”
It comes after West, who formally changed his name to Ye, published a series of posts on Instagram, including rants about his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her new beau, Pete Davidson.
Fox and West had been dating publicly since the New Year, with the pair travelling around Paris for Paris Fashion Week last month. As recently as 2 February, West gifted Fox and her friends Hermes Birkin bags for her 32nd birthday and organised a party for her.
But speculation that the whirlwind romance had ended began after Fox deleted all pictures of West from her Instagram this week and the rapper stopped following her on the social media platform.
She later dismissed a report by The Daily Mail that suggested she was “tearfully jetting out of LAX” airport on Sunday following the breakup.
In a now-deleted Instagram story, Fox posted a screenshot of the article’s headline and wrote: “@dailymail yall [sic] are straight trash I haven’t cried since 1997 and I especially wouldn’t cry over THIS!!
“If anything I’ve been laughing more than before and if I look like s*** it’s cuz [sic] I got out at terminal 1 and ran on foot to terminal 7 cuz I was fkin [sic] late for a plane to go see the only men that matter which is my son and my dad.”
