Kim Kardashian wants what she wants, and she will change — and change again — to get it. That’s Kim’s own assertion, not an editorial viewpoint. As she says herself, she’s a “shape shifter.” It’s important to note that shape shifter in this context has two meanings. And Kim embodies — literally and figuratively — both.
In the figurative sense, Kim K knows that what Bob Dylan sang is true: “He not busy being born is busy dying.” The modern celebrity translation of this might read: “She not busy posting new lewks on Instagram and TikTok is headed for obscurity.”
That’s a lesson from Madonna, whose constant transformations and reinventions were legendary, and from Madonna’s own tutor also — global icon Marilyn Monroe.
“I’m fascinated by Marilyn,” Kim said on a recent episode of The Kardashians. “I love that she did things her way. She transformed herself to be this complete icon, and now everyone on the planet knows who she is. Much respect,”
Like her celebrity precursors, Kim knows the formula: that the public has to know who you are, but must also never be quite sure about who you’ll be tomorrow — if you want your fame to last.
Then there is the literal “shape shifting” that Kim claims — and this is an important part of how she wants to be viewed in the fashion world. The high fashion world, that is. But, as she said on the episode, “no one trusted us for years.” What does she mean?
Kardashian means that few of the top fashion houses working in haute couture thought her body would work with their designs. Kim’s body type is not the typical one you see on the runway — but she can make it work, she says. She can shift. And it’s in this assertion that she claims the literal version of shape shifter.
“The width of my shoulders and my body makes me like a shape-shifter — I can squeeze into anything,” she says. “But no one trusted us for years. They would never send samples. And then once I would get to Paris and try on the samples they would be like, ‘Oh wait, she actually fits in our stuff…’ “.
Whatever you believe about Kim Kardashian, her gift for squeezing into stuff can’t be denied. Kim Kardashian is nothing if not a shape shifter, just like she says.