Kim Kardashian West has done it again!
But is the *it* in question fashion innovation? Or cultural appropriation??
The beauty mogul shared her latest line on Tuesday, her own version of shapewear! Only Kim says hers “actually work.”
Ooh, the Spanx shade! (But don’t worry about them, they always snap back! Ha!)
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Kim even goes so far as to call it “solutionwear” because each change was an effort to fix problems with all the existing shapewear on the market. Great idea, really!
But, uh, what does Kim call her shapewear solutions?
Kimono!
Oh. Huh. That is wrong on multiple levels. But we will get back to that.
First, Here’s the announcement post:
And here’s what Kim had to say in her full social media announcement on Instagram:
“Finally I can share with you guys this project that I have been developing for the last year.
I’ve been passionate about this for 15 years.
Kimono is my take on shapewear and solutions for women that actually work.
I would always cut up my shapewear to make my own styles, and there have also been so many times I couldn’t find a shapeware color that blended with my skin tone so we needed a solution for all of this.
The third pic is the solution short.
I developed this style for all of those times I wanted to wear a dress or skirt with a slit and still needed the support.
Introducing Kimono Solutionwear™ for every body. Coming Soon in sizes XXS – 4XL in 9 shades. I can’t wait for you to feel this fabric!”
One person is already ecstatic about the new line: Kim’s pal Chrissy Teigen!
The model was especially impressed with the solution short, tweeting:
“Oh my god I don’t have to cut one side of my spanx anymore!!!!!”
She even jumped to the product’s defense when some Twitter users were scratching their heads over the uneven shorts, answering:
“girl it’s for slits”
Then when someone asked:
“Who wears slits?”
She shot back:
“seriously?”
LOLz! Little did they know they were talking to the queen of slits. (Oh wait, that sounds really wrong.)
Then when someone else tried explaining about how “Some dresses/skirts have slits on one side” Chrissy quipped what she thought the criticism was really all about:
“right! like just say you don’t like her and move on lol”
As for the other criticism…
Yeah. Kimono.
OK, first off — why would you give one article of clothing a brand name that is also another specific article of clothing. It’s just asking for misunderstandings. “I told you to get my kimono!” “This IS your kimono!” “I never loved you!” That kind of thing.
Also, it’s an article of clothing you don’t even need shapewear for — so it seems even more wrong, doesn’t it?
Right? OK, fine, no more stalling. Here we go…
Is this cultural appropriation?
A few critics thought so, tweeting:
“Why is it called Kimono? This doesn’t look like a traditional Japanese garment to me.”
“Cultural appropriation at is finest”
“Name already taken”
“why’s it called kimono if that’s a completely different style of clothing. I get that you’re incorporating your name but kimono is the name of a traditional (and cultural) japanese robe.”
Obviously KIMono is a play on Kim’s name, but a kimono is a traditional Japanese garment — often worn on special occasions.
What’s more, in case you were wondering, yes Kim somehow was allowed to trademark the name Kimono.
So she quite literally took a traditional word from another culture and made it hers. So it’s hard to argue the name isn’t all kinds of problematic.
Even if the product is great.
What do YOU think, Perezcious fashionistas??
[Image via Kim Kardashian West/Instagram/FayesVision/WENN.]
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