Kim Kardashian shares when she feels most confident: 'I always feel good in my bikini moments'
Kim Kardashian is unrecognizable on the latest cover of Interview magazine where she bares her butt while wearing a jockstrap.
The 41-year-old posted photos and behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot to her Instagram on Tuesday. While people commented about not recognizing the star, Kardashian herself said that the styling was a bold choice.
"The team was like, 'No jockstrap.' And I’m like, 'Come on. This is what I do,'" she said in her cover story for the 'American Dream' issue. "I do best when I’m ignoring them and doing what I want. So, I’m glad we did it."
Shock value is something that the reality TV personality and mogul is consistently creating, especially as she's used fashion to make a statement on the Met Gala red carpet, the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit and her countless SKIMS collections as of late. Before the controversy of dieting to fit into Marilyn Monroe's one-of-a-kind gown when walking the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in May 2022, Kardashian arrived to the event in Sept. 2021 completely covered head-to-toe in a black Balenciaga look.
"That was a scary moment for me. I was like, 'I don’t get it. Why am I covering my face for the Met?' And then I was talked into it, and was like, 'It’s a costume ball. You have to go with the full vision, and the full vision was to be covered from head to toe and still be recognizable as a silhouette of myself.' So, there was a lot behind it," she said. "I trust myself in the sense of, I know what looks good, and I know what makes me feel really uncomfortable. But, every once in a while, someone will be like, 'Trust me. This looks good.' Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t, and you just have to roll with it. It’s not that serious. I care a lot, but I also can’t let it consume me. Sometimes there’s bad angles, bad lighting. You can’t control it all."
Despite critics calling the mother-of-three and aspiring lawyer an exhibitionist for the way that she appears both in public and on her social media pages, Kardashian says she's "not really." Instead, she describes her style as striking a balance between attainable and aspirational.
"There’s so many people that I look at and I’m like, 'Oh my god. I love how they dress.' Or, 'I love that. That’s so fresh.' I get it. And then for me, I can find things that could be so simple, and that a lot of people, a lot of girls, can connect to—and that is very sellable," she explained. "The things I wear seem realistic. There’s an easy way to find a similar item or a solution to wear something similar, and I think that may be what resonates. It feels attainable."
It is her ability to translate her appearance into sells that she'd even claim as her talent.
"People used to be like, 'Well, what do you do? What’s your talent?' And I’m like, 'Didn’t know I needed one.' I mean, I can give you a million f***ing talents. I can cook well, use my toes for anything. I could tell you the weirdest fucking shit on the planet," she said. "But I think my talent is marketing and the business behind selling products and knowing what the customer wants and making it feel attainable, but also a bit unattainable at the same time. I wouldn’t say that’s a talent. I think it’s a bit of magic and business savvy. Maybe it is talent, I don’t know."
As a result of the conversation constantly surrounding her fame and how she got to where she is, Kardashian admitted that "I'll always feel like I have something to prove," even if just to herself. She also said that speaking highly of her career milestones is difficult for her to do.
"I have a problem being super confident. I’ve always been more self-deprecating, and I get shy when it comes to, 'Describe yourself. Talk about yourself.'Things like that," she said.
At the end of the day, however, she's the only one who can define her path. "I don’t really care what people think of me or say about me," she said, laughing at her Wikipedia page's description of "American socialite, model, media personality, and businesswoman." She added, "I mean, model, that’s funny."
What she remains most confident about is her role as a mother to her children shared with ex-husband Kanye West — and her aesthetic.
"I always feel good in my bikini moments," she shared. "My glamour goals are just to look tight forever."
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