Julia Fox Says Breaking Up With Kanye West Cost Her A Denim Deal

Julia Fox and Kanye West were a celebrity couple for the books — specifically, Fox’s book. In her memoir Down the Drain, the actor reveals many details about their short-lived affair, including how her association with the rapper helped her secure (and subsequently lose out on) a million-dollar deal with an Italian denim label.

Fox writes that when they began dating in early 2022, she and West (whom she refers to exclusively as “the artist”) got along well. They went out to dinner and spent plenty of time with his famous friends.

Around that time, she claims he promised to secure her a “million-dollar deal”: “The next day, he puts me in touch with an Italian denim company and they start negotiating on my behalf,” she writes. “I can’t believe this is my life, but I can definitely get used to it.”

Sadly, the fairytale didn’t last. A few weeks after their Interview magazine photoshoot, Fox and West broke up — and moments after Fox asked her publicist to tell the media about their split, she learned her million-dollar denim deal had fallen through. The reason? “It’s contingent on you being his girlfriend,” Fox says she was told. (She doesn’t name the fickle brand in question.)

A lot transpired in the time between West’s promise to secure the deal and its eventual collapse. Fox remembers their joint trip to Paris for Couture Week in late January as the end of their honeymoon phase: Together, West and Fox wore matching denim-on-denim ensembles, were hounded by the paparazzi outside the Schiaparelli fashion show, and attended “an intimate party at designer Rick Owens’s concrete palace.”

Their relationship soured soon thereafter, as the pair argued about (among other things) setting boundaries with each other’s respective friend groups. West then went off the grid for a few weeks, which further pulled them apart. “It feels jarring to go from so much to nothing at all in such a short span of time,” Fox writes of that time. “I scan his annoying friends’ social media for clues to his whereabouts.”

Fox also claims that West, who was curating her look at the time (as he did for his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian), took issue with a flight-attendant piece she wore for a Supreme ad.

When the pair reunited to celebrate Fox’s birthday in February, Fox writes that West seemed “distant and preoccupied.” She recalls realizing that their relationship was coming to an end, because he only displayed affection when there was a camera nearby.

He gifted Fox’s friends Birkin bags, but then had them pretend to unwrap the gifts several times for photos. “We do as we’re told and awkwardly throw our arms up and scream for joy as he stands off in the background, looking on with pride,” she writes. “As we pose like puppets, I question his true intentions, feeling that this grand gesture is nothing more than a publicity stunt. I’m disconnected from the moment. I try to find gratitude for the lavish gifts, but the feeling of insincerity lingers.”

The next day, Fox writes, she told West she wasn’t having fun anymore, and that she’d been unhappy going public with their relationship so quickly. There and then, Fox and West called it off — and somewhere in Italy, a denim brand chose to part ways with Fox, too.