How Kim Kardashian and Kanye West took over Paris fashion week
|
Version 0 of 1. At a fashion show sitting in close proximity to a celebrity is standard. If the PR wedges you in next to an A-lister you don’t talk to them, you act nonchalant and pointedly look away whilst they have their picture taken. Maybe you discretely take a blurry picture of their feet on your phone and post it under #crapshoes or whatever afterwards. But Kim and Kanye’s time at Paris fashion week was something else entirely. It began in a fairly innocuous way – Kanye sat a few seats down from the Guardian at the Dries Van Noten show, chatting politely to Diane Pernet as he watched the models indulge in their Midsummer Night’s Dream fantasy. His Paris fashion week manners immaculate as he politely snapped pictures on his iPhone while his mountain of a bodyguard looked on. Five days later and it was a different story entirely, as a weary fashion industry tried to wrestle back the Paris catwalks from the Kardashian-Wests. We should have known that Kimye were going to be trouble this season. Backstage at the Dries show our colleague, Observer fashion editor Jo Jones, was rebuked by the Hulk Hogan moustache-sporting bodyguard. “Can we take a picture of Mr West?” “No, the photocall finished four minutes ago”. “Then why is Mr West posing for me?” she asked. “I think Mr West is chilling.” Was he? We’re still not sure. See below: The mixed messages continued at the Balenciaga show. It’s pretty hard to play the just-being-casual card when you turn up to an 8pm show with Kim actual Kardashian and your daughter North. Because a baby on the front row, dressed in a Yeezus tour T-shirt and playing with Carine Roitfeld is going to garner a little bit of attention. Ditto the ensuing fracas as you leave in a matt-black Porsche. By the Balmain show on Thursday the Kimye show had lost any pretence of low-key. With Kardashian sister Kendall Jenner walking in the show, her mother Kris Jenner watching, Kim in white embroidery and Kanye in a gold embroidered frock coat ’n’ cleavage. the secret was out. These guys had clearly planned to take over Paris fashion week all along. The presidential-style motorcade (complete with the Bodyguard walking alongside the car) and the Nasa-style exit logistics proved as much. With hindsight, this was the tipping point when having Kimye at Paris fashion week went from fun to borderline dull. Were there no other celebrities in Paris? When the Kardashian Wests arrived 40 minutes late at the Lanvin show (with matching cleavage) they were met with boos from photographers who were fed up with waiting for them. At the Givenchy show Mademoiselle, North West’s front-row seat with its handwritten label was an Instagram phenomenon. (And rightly so; who doesn’t love calligraphy?) But when baby’s experimental chiffon outfit got more attention than Riccardo Tisci’s Game of Thrones sexiness, there was a sense that the Wests had overcommitted to the catwalks and should perhaps go and see the Eiffel tower or something. We enjoyed studying Kim’s face, with it’s angles cut like a perfect Graff diamond. We are in awe of Bodyguard’s professionalism, we can tolerate Kanye’s decolletage and would have hearts of stone if we didn’t find North adorable. But, guys, would you mind if we said au revoir now and got back to the actual trends? And if you plan on staying until the end would you at least mind penning the odd show review? |