“If I see something on a Kardashian or any other internet celebrity, it immediately makes me NOT want it,” announced a commenter when I mused who (or what, if you believe influencers aren’t real people) constitutes today’s tastemaker.
And woof, Leave this field empty if youre human.
After all, the internet’s love-hate—or rather, love-to-hate—relationship with the Kardashian klan, while not a new phenomenon, certainly seems to be on overdrive lately. Some might even call it krazy. You know who you are.
But regardless of whether you’re on the side of the debate that posits the family as “the breathing manifestation of America’s celebrity problem” or as a late-stage feminist-capitalist-pop-culture icon, there will continue to be around 1.2 billion unsuspecting viewers around the globe collectively tuning into their socials to willingly be subjected to the sight of Kris Jenner’s Easter decorations.
It’s like the opening monologue to Barbie, the movie: “Since the beginning of time, since the first little girl ever existed, there have been dolls. But the dolls were always and forever baby dolls, until…” Until, of course, there were the Kardashians.
Because for a show thats.
The (Wo)Man, the Myth, the Legend
Pop culture’s ultimate plaything, if you know Kim Kardashian (and you do), you know that she’s famous. Why so precisely is perhaps the bigger question here.
The brainchild (and the second child) to Robert Kardashian – defense attorney to O.J. Simpson – and Kris Houghton – “eventual matriarch and media mastermind” – Kim’s beginnings hark back to the early days of eBay. And initially, having had her start by peddling $700 Manolo Blahniks at the (rather steep) markup of $2,500, it’s unsurprising that she masterminded her own shapewear empire.
Nevertheless, in a nod to her (humble?) roots, she continues the resale trade to date under the username @kimsaprincess—with 99.5% positive feedback, no less! She also has her own skincare, beauty, and fragrance line, her own private equity firm, a Dolce & Gabbana collab, and 3D models of her brain and her plane in her office.
But like a soothsayer had once soothed, “Kardashian will be internationally known,” what truly made Kim, well, the Kardashian, wasn’t her dubious eBay escapades. Nor, for that matter, her vague associations with Paris Hilton.
Instead, a certain sordid video with her then-boyfriend, Ray J, brought her to the top of tabloid headlines, Google Searches, and watercooler conversations. What that says about society as a whole, mama bear Kris herself epitomizes the best: “When I first heard about Kim’s tape, as her mother, I wanted to kill her. But as her manager…” And so, they simply chose to keep scandalizing the world with their own reality show (now in its seventeenth consecutive year) in response.
Or, more specifically, Kimberly Noel Kardashian, obviously.
#NotBadForAGirlWithNoTalent
There is no denying that the onslaught of Kardashian content that is You know who you are – You know who you are The Kardashians – be subjected to the sight of Kris Jenners Easter decorations.
Front and center to it was Kim, the bandage-dress-wearing boon of America’s economic banes, self-styled just questionably enough to invoke a noughties’ Mariah Carey in her walk-the-dog look with a boombox – but never not marriage to an equally public-facing Kanye West after all, as (“I also feel like you need less Botox for more emotion, and I don’t have it.”)
To attribute her meteoric rise to fame down to a single instance, however salacious it may be, would be to understate her capabilities. And of that, there certainly are a lot, even if she has alleged that she’s a girl with no talent.
Shangai Calfskin Tiger Savanah Web Mini Horsebit 1955 Shoulder Bag very public marriage to an equally public-facing Kanye West (after all, as Amy Odell states, nothing says romance like “strategic importance” and “a very big market”) or her 72-day espousal to Kris Humphries prior to that, or the ‘Break the Internet’ cover for Paper Magazine, or “renting out” a Ralphs outlet so she could go grocery shopping, or her fake chewing fiasco as Beyond Meat’s Chief Taste Consultant, or her lawsuit over fake tables (I’m not making this up), her list of “accomplishments” – and I could go on for much longer – renders her commitment to “getting your f***ing ass up and work” admirable, if not altogether desirable.
So, really, Kim’s primary talent is to adapt herself to the changing landscape of the internet’s myriad impulses, to literally “just dress me up like a doll, I didn’t even care,” as she confides to Vogue. And that’s the reason her pop-culture cache, fame, and even fashion moments remain largely unmatched by her contemporaries.
Ariana Grande Steps Out to Promote Wicked With an $11,000 Loewe Bag.
“You’re Doing Amazing Sweetie”
Leave this field empty if youre human.
And given her rather unglamorous associations, haute couture’s high society made no pretense of hiding this hostility either. It’s for this reason that Kardashian’s marriage to West, already a fashion insider and an Anna Wintour confidante, proved to be particularly significant, bagging Kim her first Vogue cover, a heavily pregnant Met Gala ticket, and a newfound sense of style devoid of excessive boobage.
But in between her countless fashion choices – some iconic, some utterly baffling –she’s made it to today, the crown jewel of social media’s First Family, the poster child of career polyamory, and the “arbiter of thoughtless monochrome spaces” while documenting every step of this odyssey on national television.
In the process, she’s certainly received her fair share – or perhaps more than her fair share, of internet backlash – even death threats.
These have ranged from accusations of vacuousness, vapidity, and cultural appropriation to viewers going as far as to swear never to buy Hermès after Kim had her Birkin defaced by artist George Condo and her Herbag by baby North West. Her attempts to contort her body into extreme outfits have been dubbed regressive, her Marilyn Monroe Met Gala moment sacrilegious, and her billionth SKIMS campaign featuring a bratty Charli XCX in decidedly non-bratty undergarments tired.
The Chanel 22 Mini Bag Proves the 22 Is Here to Stay.
SKIMS cofounder Jens Grede has called her “the Michael Jordan of the influencer generation.” You need not be a fan of (or even know) Kim Kardashian to be a SKIMS customer or consume reality content because she has redefined all of that—and continues to do so with her omnipresence, for better or for worse.
So, don’t see those Birkins (which Hermès very famously does not gift or discount even for celebrities) as a testament to Kim’s capitalistic or even narcissistic tendencies. Instead, see them as her armor against the inherent snobbery of fashion, serving as the same totem of “having made it” here, essentially as an outsider.
Because for a show that’s substantially “various scenes of these women just sort of sitting in different spots,” she certainly has a hell of a work ethic.
As much as I have no interest in anything Kardashian, I must admit that the whole family’s ability to make money out of pretty much nothing is really impressive. They understand how to turn droves of followers into dollar signs. Good for them!
The Chanel 22 Mini Bag Proves the 22 Is Here to Stay?
lol yep that’s what I though.
Not enough 🙂↔️
<3
Not enough is right! Waiting for the Kardashian paychecks to come in so we can write about them more 😉
Obviously, kidding!
I used to be a hater but I *gulp* admire them now, particularly Kris, Kim and Kylie. Not that the others are any less, they’re all part of the phenomenon they’ve built as a family. I do admire the family. Kris I think knew that the industry, at least then, would turn its nose up at them but with timing and calculation, she made sure her kids would survive, thrive and eventually rule that ruthless industry. They were outcasts, imagine a brown skinned girl trying to make it in Hollywood, that world tried to say no so guess what, they created their own world that now hundreds of millions of people want a piece of. It’s brilliant really. Yes they’re manufactured by a capitalistic world but they’re taking on that world. That combination of making sure the family succeeds and endless grind makes me respect these strong women. The unabashed sexuality? The deeper message to women is to OWN THAT POWER.
I used to find the Kardashian family rather annoying when they first emerged in the broader spotlight. But in recent years, I’ve come to appreciate the longevity of their success. They are effectively the pioneers in leveraging negative press and social media hate into media superstardom. Despite the claims that they got famous doing “nothing”, I challenge any person to spend every day being camera-ready, prepare and enact the story line, forfeit any sense of normalcy for you and your family, and get hated on for years and years. It’s a lot of work and I applaud them for not burning out.
Just no
You have to hand it to them, they are ambitious! I guess they are laughing all the way to the bank. It goes to show that a lot of money doesn’t necessarily make you stylish, this comment only applies to some/most of the clan. The majority of the family seem
so fake!
I admire Kim’s self-awareness to sometimes make self-deprecating jokes about her own fakeness, which I agree not all the sisters do but she seems to enjoy. More power to her.
The thing that really made her famous is that she made it glamorous to have curves and women who are naturally curvy had a more realistic body type to aspire to. Ironically, there is nothing real about her body (or face) and that’s why those who don’t love her, hate her (and the whole family) because now the less curvy girls are altering their bodies to look like the Kardashians’ altered bodies. It’s not healthy.
I think they’re also hated because they don’t seem authentic. Their actions and choices seem driven by marketing strategies rather than true desire.
Their fame was attained from a sex tape, reality show and vain poses on social media. But they have channeled that fame into lasting businesses (SKIMS, Kylie cosmetics, Good American) and that is admirable.
Not sure why this blog post is about her as it’s not about handbags or adjacent to handbags.
I would argue the contrary. Given the amount of plastic surgery and money that it takes to look like they do now… they are creating unattainable body standards for women.
We actually said the same thing. I said that naturally hourglass/pear shaped women did not see themselves represented much until they came along so many shapely women latched on to them. But ironically, their bodies and faces have been altered and purchased and it’s not healthy to aspire to this.
Her handbags have been covered extensively on Atelier-lumieresShops previously, from the Many Bags series (that too, twice) to her own campaigns for Balenciaga, as well as her gargantuan collection of Birkins.
But it’s what made her so polarizing – and in turn, trickled down somewhat to affect the perception of brands like Balenciaga and Hermès – that I tried to investigate here. My apologies if that hadn’t quite come through.
I deplore everything the Kardashians stand for: extreme materialism, plastic surgery galore, endless hype/self-promotion, etc, but I have to at least credit Momager Kris’ ambition to create an empire for her girls (sorry, Rob) based on such shallowness and vapidness. And please let me know when Kim finally “becomes” a lawyer instead of studying to be one for years.
I don’t really understand the point of this post…
Yes she’s influential, but it’s odd to write a multi-paragraph post asking us to buy into her girlboss persona as a positive thing. I don’t deny their family’s marketing acumen or voracious capitalism but I don’t respect them for it. And I really don’t know what an essay on that has to do with a handbag blog.
If you were trying to prove that she’s a tastemaker it might have been more effective to compare the trends of her various bags to trends that later show up in the wider market. For example, when was that LV campaign where they covered their bags in Van Gogh paintings? Or the rise of brands she partnered with in tandem with her own acceptance into the high fashion world. That would have been a worthwhile read.
I find, ‘ mama bear Kris herself epitomizes the best: “When I first heard about Kim’s tape, as her mother, I wanted to kill her. But as her manager…” ’ upsetting.
Yes, realistically, as a mom I’d want to shake my daughter – “what were you thinking?” – but that she didn’t point that anger at the leaker is sad.
Years ago, I read that Kim leaked the sex tape. Nonetheless, it’s out there & helped lead to her fame.
You’re correct. She & RJ both signed contracts + NDA’s prior to it being released…he had some mental health struggles not long ago & decided to live stream a rant while showing the documents with signatures blown up on his TV.
The owner of the films production company has also said he’d “never have released a video of that nature without all parties having signed on the dotted line. U only need to consider that there was never any official legal action taken against us (from a family who’s notoriously litigious & well connected) to know the truth.”