“Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” Season 16 — with artistic direction by Kanye West.CreditMiller Mobley/E! Entertainment
For the return of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” this weekend, we spoke with each of the five Kardashian-Jenner sisters — that’s Kourtney, Kim, and Khloé Kardashian, and Kendall and Kylie Jenner — about their entwined and individual businesses.
One family member that makes a notable impression in the new season is Kim Kardashian’s husband, Kanye West. He’ll appear more regularly on the show — and, for the first time, he’ll be doing direct-to-camera “confessionals.” He also helped design the looks for the whole gang.
Kanye frequently texts with the show’s producers, we learned — he redid the slightly 1970s aesthetic and clad the sisters in nude and silver. “He’s a real creative force, clearly, and had thoughts on marketing, thoughts on presentation of the show, on the opening title sequence,” Adam Stotsky, the president of E!, told us.
At home, Kim told us, there’s a “mood board” that she and Kanye play with all the time. It’s where they put visual ideas they like, changes they’ll want to Kim’s cosmetic, fragrance and accessory lines. Kim doesn’t just put her name on things: she helps design products and packaging too — making changes when Kanye weighs in.
He also, we learned, once asked Kim not to do an Instagram sponsored post from a fast fashion company that he said had ripped him off. But she didn’t lose the income — sort of. “He wrote me a check for that amount and said ‘Thank you so much for always being supportive and not posting,’” she said.
“Keeping Up With the Kardashians” returns for season 16 on Sunday, March 31, at 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific and 8 p.m. Central. You can read all about the business of the Kardashian-Jenner family right here.
