The year 2014 -Exactly a decade has passed and not much has changed .The pages of magazines are still filled with the models, Kate Moss still reigns supreme though facing stiff competition from a younger Brit, Cara Delevigne, Martha Stewart is the subject matter of a litigation between Macy's and J.C Penny and the Twitterverse( yes the social media entity created in 2006 ) is agog with the news that Kim Kardashian landed the cover of Vogue magazine.
To those who have been living under a rock, Vogue is the official style bible of the fashion world. I remember as a child spending my bored weekends poring through my fashion designer mother's stash of old Vogues, not looking for fashion inspiration but sniffing perfume samples and imagining I was one of the impeccably dressed guests in their "people and parties" column. With different versions across the world, Vogue is the venerable guide for all fashionistas.
The next question on the rock dwellers mind would be " who is Kim Kardashian and why the raucous over her being given the sacrosanct and coveted position on the cover of the fashion tome?" This requires a little bit of history. Back in 2007, Kim Kardashian was a little known dweller of Calabasas, California. Born to an American Armenian attorney, known famously as O.J Simpson's attorney, Kim and her four siblings were blessed with exotic looks. But it was not just her exotic looks, as the American-Armenian community can testify, that propelled her into the limelight. Of course being in the upper middle class echelons afforded her the fortutity of being friends with spawn of legitimate celebrities, (her most famous associate before her big break being Paris Hilton, heiress to the Hilton hotel empire), but that was not enough to catapult her to overnight stardom.
What made this naive, already been married at the nascent age of nineteen years old, strikingly beautiful lady a "celebrity" was a sex tape she had made with R n B singer Ray J which leaked in 2007. I personally have not seen this body of work but it was intense enough to make the world ask " Who is that girl?"
The E! network provided the answer and introduced the world to the kooky world of the Kardashians. Interestingly focused on Kim and her sisters, the Kardashians were actually spearheaded by a new patriach, Olympian Bruce Jenner, who mama Jenner married following a divorce from the now late Robert Kardashian.
The on-screen and off-screen candour of the Kardashian/Jenner clan were a conversation piece and hate them or love them, everyone was talking about the Kardashians, especially Kim and her ever bourgeoning physical "assets." A reality show fueled by America's thirst for celebrity has spurned millions of dollars in endorsement deals, a best selling book, cosmetic and perfume lines for the Kardashians but most especially for the lady who started it all- Kim Kardashian.
The show has seen her married, seeking a divorce under a record thirty-eight days, pregnant while still married to another man and now a mother and fiancée to one of the world's most controversial yet prolific artiste's; Kanye West. Kim Kardashian who to some might be deemed a fashion "designer" (courtesy her numerous fashion lines with her sisters), was given a push up the fashion ladder by new beau Kanye. An episode of her reality show once showed him giving her a wardrobe makeover resulting in a surprisingly more stylish looking Kim.
A beautiful baby, a fiancée and the world at her feet were however not enough for Kim as rumours swirled through the mill that despite having her face splattered across the pages of several notable magazines, she longed to conquer Vogue. Vogue followers worldwide mocked her ambition. Sure she could record a song, nab endorsements and star in movies(The counsellor, cringe), but she would never grace the cover of Vogue under the watchful eyes of Anna Wintour, the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue magazine, the head bitch in charge of the Vogue coven and inspiration for hit movie,"The Devil wears Prada." It was alleged that Anna despised Kim and thought of her as reality T.V trash, reportedly approving a picture of Kanye with Kim unceremoniously cropped out.
The Vogue followers slept soundly and blissfully unaware that their world was about to be rocked until the 22nd of March, 2014 when they would awoke to the news that Kim was on the cover of Vogue!! What happened to Wintour's supposed vow that Kim would never make the cover? Anger and sadness washed over Vogue devotees as they realised that they had been hoodwinked and they took to their twitter accounts to vent.
Vogue knew what every good marketing team knew. With today's obsession with celebrity and Kim's unbridled fame, this would probably be their best selling edition ever. Coupled with Kanye West who cradled his wife to be on the cover, they had opened up an entirely new demographic for Vogue. Many stoic believers of Vogue had threatened to cancel their subscriptions but there would just as more ready to subscribe and even buy a magazine which previously had no appeal to them. Many have threatened to buy the magazine just to burn it, but that's good enough for Vogue, the magazine gets sold. For many it wasn't just about sales, it was a seeming validation and a stamp of approval of someone who is for the most part conceived as vapid and superficial.
While I do not validate Kim's initial claim to fame, none of us is in a position to judge her for the decisions she has made in the past (even though I would throw her lots of shade for simulating sex in a music video with her fiancée). If Lena Dunham (the perpetually naked even if it's just on a T.V show actress) could make the cover so can Kim. She has managed to create a new breed of celebrity. A bankable celebrity lacking for the most part in artistic, athletic or creative abilities but is distinctly attractive genetically or otherwise (with an impeccable sense of style). And for that alone, Kim deserves to be on the cover of Vogue.
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