The man behind the camera! Kim Kardashian presented her close friend and photographer Mert Alas with the Creative of the Year Award at the 2017 Fashion Los Angeles Awards on Sunday, April 2.
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star, 36, channeled her wedding day glam at the event in a sheer white Givenchy couture gown, which featured handsewn beads and various 3-D embellishments. She wore the dress over a white leotard and kept her brunette locks slicked back.
When Kardashian took the stage at the Sunset Tower Hotel event, which was presented by Kim Crawford Wines, she told the audience that her speech was “going to be really short tonight” and joked that she “can’t really suck in that much longer.” Throughout her presentation, she appeared relaxed and charismatic and even had the crowd laughing.
“Mert asked me to do this. I just wanted to give you guys a little bit of his personality,” she said of the fashion photographer, who shot her nude June 2016 GQ cover. “He is the kind of guy that — first of all, he let me call him Merv for, like, two years and didn’t correct me. It’s really bad, so he’s such a gentleman.”
The Selfish author told the star-studded crowd, which included Nicki Minaj and Nick Jonas, that Alas has been by her side through the good times and the bad. “He is the kind of guy that when you’re really going through something tough, he’ll come over and bring you ice cream and just be there with you. And then, after a little while, he’ll tell you you’ve got to stop eating the ice cream because we have a photo shoot to do. So, we share endless beauty tips.”
Kardashian explained that she hadn’t planned on doing any more naked photo shoots until Alas convinced her. “He’s also the kind of guy where I, like, swore I was never going to do a nude shoot again, and my publicist will kill me. I’ll stand on set and she’ll go to the bathroom and he’ll get my clothes off. He’s just honestly the funniest person I’ve ever met in my entire life.”
The social media maven concluded, “I’ve never met a more genuine person, someone that cares so much about what’s really going on in your life, aside from all the beauty and the fashion, of all the good stuff that surrounds his life. His job is truly so important. He captures memories in our lives that you always want to remember. You can be 10 pounds overweight and you’ll always see gorgeous photos and angles. But all these photos that you can look back on for the rest of your life and remember that period in time. So, I’m truly so honored to be here to present this award. He’s just truly one of my greatest friends, and we’re going to run off to the Chateau [Marmont Hotel] and eat french fries after this.”
