Since she first became a de facto muse for Demna at Balenciaga early last year, Kim Kardashian has been unafraid to wear some of the designer’s boldest and most uncompromising looks. There was, of course, the full-body black bodysuit with a train she wore to the 2021 Met Gala – with her face fully covered, it was read as a wink to her own inescapable celebrity – or the hot pink catsuits, one with an enormous ruffled cloak, that she wore for her Saturday Night Live debut back in October. Indeed, Kardashian has become so synonymous with Balenciaga over the past year that she became an official face of the brand when they revealed their summer 2022 campaign last month, alongside Isabelle Huppert.
So while it came as little surprise to see Kardashian make an appearance at the Balenciaga show today during Paris Fashion Week, held at the Le Bourget exhibition centre on the north-eastern outskirts of the city, her choice of outfit was a little less predictable: an athletic top and leggings covered entirely in Balenciaga branded packing tape that had been wrapped around her by hand, along with a matching version of the brand’s cult Hourglass handbag that had also been trussed up with the yellow and black tape. (The New York Times’s chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, who sat near Kardashian throughout the show, noted it made a “sticky tape-y sound” when she walked, and that she expressed her concerns it might rip when she sat down. Thankfully, those concerns ended up being misplaced.)
Getting ready for @BALENCIAGA pic.twitter.com/50pX10QvO0
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) March 6, 2022
It marked an appropriately dramatic beginning to one of Demna’s most breathtaking fashion shows yet. Staged in the round with an enormous set built to resemble an Arctic tundra, machines pumping out snow, wind, and fog – at one point, there were even bursts of artificial thunder and lightning – the runway had a post-apocalyptic atmosphere. Models walked to a soundtrack of thunderous industrial techno, their long skirts billowing behind them. It was the kind of epic spectacle that only he could create – assuming you could take your eyes off Kardashian’s wild front-row look for long enough to watch.
This article was originally published on Vogue UK.
