Just like Us! It wasn’t just the internet that was confused by Kim Kardashian’s 2021 Met Gala look. Apparently the 41-year-old Skims founder had her fair share of questions about the completely covered Balenciaga ensemble.
“I fought against it,” the Keeping Up With the Kardashians alum revealed in a Wednesday, February 9, interview with Vogue. “I was like, ‘I don’t know how I could wear the mask. Why would I want to cover my face?’”
While she was certainly perplexed by the fashion statement at the get go, she ended up listening to Balenciaga creative director Demna’s vision for the event, which was themed “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.”
“Demna and the team were like, ‘This is a costume gala. This is not a Vanity Fair party where everyone looks beautiful. There’s a theme and you have to wear the mask. That is the look,’” Kardashian recalled.
While the “shadow dress” was statement making in and of itself, Demna told Vogue that the face covering, which Kardashian’s ex Kanye West has also worn on numerous occasions, was “quite important” to the fashion statement.
“People would know instantly it was Kim because of her silhouette. They wouldn’t even need to see her face, you know? I think that’s the whole power of her celebrity, that people wouldn’t need to see her face to know it’s her,” the Vetements cofounder explained.
Demna was most definitely correct. Because from the second the star stepped onto the red carpet, she broke the internet. Because from her $10,000 floor-length ponytail to that fact that not an inch of skin was showing, there was plenty for fans to discuss.
“How you the most talked about person at an event and nobody can ever see you? THAT’S LEGENDARY,” a fan tweeted at the time, while someone else said: “What’s more American than Kim Kardashian West tho.”
While the outfit was iconic, it did leave many wondering how it tied into the theme for the evening. Kardashian explained the inspiration via Instagram the day after the event.
“What’s more American than a T-shirt head to toe?!” she jokingly captioned a photo of herself from the evening.
Kardashian later provided further explanation by resharing a handful of tweets to her Instagram Stories. One read: “For someone who is always criticized for being overly sexual, Kim showed she can cover every square inch of skin and still find a way to criticized and ridiculed. THAT is American culture.”
