Kim and Kanye

In Bed With Kim and Kanye ...and Lara, Natasha and Lindsey

- Carine Roitfeld & Karl Lagerfeld

Love them or loathe them, there’s no denying that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are a global cultural phenomenon. Their willingness to strip themselves bare – often literally – and to play out their lives on screen and social media to their audience of 75 million followers has built them an empire. Yet do they reveal their true selves, or hide behind a glossy, carefully managed façade? LAUR A BROWN goes in search of the real Kim and Kanye.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s house sits atop a steep driveway in a gated community in Los Angeles’ Bel Air. West, on the phone, is pacing in front of the house, occasionally obscured by a column or a shiny silver sports car. He waves me in and apologises for his work-out gear: Miami Heat shorts and a black T-shirt.

This is not really their house, though. This is a stage home where the family – Kanye, Kim and their children, three-year-old North and Saint, who is nine months – are camping (a term used loosely: the place is majestically minimal) for the next few weeks until their new house is finally ready. Prior to this, they had spent over a year at the Calabasas home of Kim’s mother, Kris Jenner.

Kim click-clacks in wearing a tight long khaki Lycra dress – ‘A Yeezy sample’ – and full, precise make-up. Kanye perches on a coffee table between two gigantic white couches. On the table are some art books: Annie Leibovitz, the architect Alvaro Siza, but also, oddly, one titled Great Stud-Farms of the World. ‘Huh?’ Kanye says when I asked if, for any reason, he’s into studfarms. ‘What’s this? Nah, that’s not our book. That’s for staging.’

And when it comes to staging, Kim and Kanye know a thing or two…