Every Way Kanye West Has Transformed Kim Kardashian's Style Over the Years (and One Way He Hasn't)

When Kim and Kanye first started dating, the Yeezy designer convinced Kim it was time to purge the pattern-heavy, colorful pieces from her closet to create a more refined aesthetic. “He is giving me a full clothing makeover,” Kim said on Keeping Up with the Kardashians. “Kanye’s definitely inspired me to be a little bit more of an individual. I think my style is just evolving and changing and I think it should.”

But tossing out her old clothing didn’t come as easily as Kim had hoped. “Is it so bad to keep things?” she asked Kanye. “Babe, you gotta really clean out everything,” he replied. (And yes, she said later, she cried.)

Kim used to favor piling on tons of big accessories during her early days of fame, but that changed quickly after getting close with Kanye. 

“Before, I used to always think more is more and I used to accessorize and wear bracelets and earrings and necklaces. I used to do it all,” she said. “Now I definitely understand how much cooler it is just to be a little bit simpler.”

Kanye helped Kim amplify her style by getting her “in” with the designers he befriended from high-fashion brands like Givenchy and Balmain. Now, she’s a front row regular at their fashion shows and best friends with designers in our own right.

“Kanye is a friend for seven years,” Riccardo Tisci, former Givenchy creative director (who designed Kim’s custom Givenchy wedding gown) said. “So when he called me up and said, ‘I’m dating a girl; I want you to meet her,’ I jumped. She’s intelligent, sweet, beautiful. She’s the girlfriend of my friend. I’m not into judgment. She started coming to my shows, and some people criticized me. But I love Kanye and now I love Kim, and I didn’t care what people thought.”

Kim had a brief experiment with blonde in 2013, and despite her rapid return to brunette, her husband always hoped she’d give the lighter shade another shot. “Kanye likes the blonde,” Kardashian told PEOPLE in 2014. “I was talking about this yesterday actually with Kanye. He asked if I would ever go back to blonde,” she said. 

At the end of last year, he finally got his wish. When Kim debuted her icy white platinum hue, she joked on Instagram that she did it with Kanye in mind. “I’d go blonde for that D,” she captioned an Instagram of herself with her new blonde color. 

High-heel fanatic Kim converted to sneakers for Kanye’s in-demand Adidas Yeezy Boost kicks, wearing them everywhere since the moment the first style dropped. She even has their 2-year-old son Saint West modeing pairs of the sneakers on social media. 

Kanye cares so much about his wife’s style that he sends Kim emails with “millions” of inspiration photos attached to convince her to try a trend. Case in point: Her recent affinity for teeny tiny sunglasses. 

“[Kanye] sent me a whole email like, ‘You cannot wear big glasses anymore. It’s all about tiny little glasses,’” Kardashian said on Sunday’s episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. “He sent me like, millions of ’90s photos with tiny little glasses like this.”

Before Kanye, Kim admitted she didn’t know where to turn when it came to finding style inspo. But even before the two were officially a couple, Kanye was dying to help Kim become a bonafide fashion icon. 

“Before my husband and I started dating, he brought me [former Vogue Paris editor] Carine Roitfeld’s coffee table book [Carine Roitfeld: Irreverent] and was like, ‘You should be studying this book, this is like the fashion bible,'” Kim told CNN.

Thanks to his thoughtful gift, Kim has honed her aesthetic with help from the Internet. ” I looks at Instagram and see what people are posting. I love to follow fashion bloggers, I love getting inspiration from the runway. I get inspiration all over the place.”

Back in 2016, Kim’s style M.O. was curated straight from the Yeezy runway. The star couldn’t stop wearing unique clear over-the-knee boots from her husband’s collection, which left the world wondering how Kim could wear them without sweaty and fogged up. 

But hey, it’s all a part of Kanye’s fashion vision, which Kim trusts completely. “I love how forward-thinking he is,” she said on her app and website. 

In lieu of hosting a traditional fashion show like he had for previous seasons, Kanye took advantage of his wife’s street style fame. The result? Kim parading around the streets of Calabasas sporting nine Yeezy season six outfits in one day.

“For each look, I wanted to stick with neutral vibes,” she said on her website and app. On Twitter, Kim added: “Thank you Carine Roitfeld for styling Season 6. And I love Calabasas for being my runway.”

When it comes to Kim’s growing KKW Beauty empire, the star doesn’t turn to her husband like she does with fashion. “No. That’s totally an area he doesn’t know much about,” she told E!. “But he’s so proud of me.”