Just as we suspected, Kylie Jenner has gone and pissed off her fans after rocking a very wild statement piece during Paris Fashion Week!
The 25-year-old attended Monday’s Schiaparelli show wearing a stunning strapless black velvet gown with an eerily lifelike lion head attached. While gushing about the dress on Instagram, the reality star made it very clear the design was made using “manmade materials,” seemingly in hopes of avoiding the inevitable uproar from animal lovers! She wrote:
“BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. thank you @danielroseberry and @schiaparelli for such a special morning. wow i loved wearing this faux art creation constructed by hand using manmade materials. beautiful beautiful”
But this definitely wasn’t enough to calm haters down!
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Before we go any further, take a look at how realistic the lion head looked (below)!
Of course an outfit like this is designed to stir up controversy, and it sure did! Fans immediately started criticizing the “disturbing” accessory! They argued in the comment section it was “pro cruelty” even if it was faux:
“But why. Why why why even imitate this. I’m thankful it’s faux but the imagery is still disturbing”
“Why are you wearing animal’s head on your dress? Faux or not… it doesn’t make sense to me?”
“Guess more Americans will be flocking to Africa now to get the latest wildlife accessories. Promoting hunting. As a South African, This is wrong on so many levels, The king of our jungle is not a fashion statement, like WTF”
“Kylie I love your style but this is wrong, this promotes animal cruelty. It is a terrible fashion mistake! Please stop!”
Many others called the look “horrifying,” “ridiculous,” and “one of [her] worst fashion mistakes of all time.” YEESH!
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Innerestingly, not everyone was up in arms. One user tried to calm others down by comparing the faux lion head to a stuffed animal, musing:
“Y’all act like your kids ain’t carrying stuffed animals around. Wouldn’t it also be considered ‘promoting animal hunting.'”
Sorry, but that’s a flimsy argument. Children’s stuffed animals are not representative of slaughtered animals, they’re representative of living animals. This person cannot seriously believe kids walk around play-acting like they’re taxidermy enthusiasts. Kylie’s outfit, on the other hand, is meant to look like real-life outfits made from real big game, worn historically as status symbols of the rich. Total false equivalency.
But get this: that commenter wasn’t the only one giving the dress a positive review — PETA actually approves, too! WHAT?! The organization’s president Ingrid Newkirk told TMZ on Monday:
“Kylie’s look celebrates lions’ beauty and may be a statement against trophy hunting, in which lion families are torn apart to satisfy human egotism.”
Instead of viewing the fake animal heads as glorifying hunting, the president thinks it proves fashion can move forward without animal cruelty, saying:
“These fabulously innovative three-dimensional animal heads show that where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Um… what?? PETA being chill with bringing back the poacher patron look as long as no REAL animals are harmed is definitely not how we expected the year in fashion to begin…
So far, Kylie has yet to react to the backlash.
Amazingly, she wasn’t the only one making a wildlife statement at the show. According to reports, fashion designer Daniel Roseberry drew inspiration from Dante‘s Inferno. He wanted to reimagine the three beasts that are featured in the poem, so he had Kylie rock the lion (representing pride) while Shalom Harlow wore a roaring leopard (aka lust) and Naomi Campbell wore a she-wolf (greed). There were several others in the unique pieces, too, including Irina Shayk. Take a look:
Seems sort of fitting that the dress was inspired by Hell given all the controversy! LOLz! Thoughts?
[Image via Kylie Jenner/Walt Disney Studios/YouTube]