It was announced earlier in the week that according to a poll of its readers Parade Magazine has found that of all the reality-TV-stars-run-amok and psycho-celebs out there, the one that grates on America’s nerves like no other is Kim Kardashian. Not exactly a shocker considering that anyone who owns a computer, TV or pair of eyeballs for that matter has spent the last few months being bombarded with images of the Kardashian clan selling their new clothing line with Sears, promoting their numerous reality TV ventures or gearing up for Kim’s wedding to basketball star Kris Humphries.
It should also come as no surprise that the fashion world is suffering from just as much Kardashian fatigue as the viewers at home. What is interesting though is that Parade’s poll comes a few short weeks after a New York Times article proclaiming the recently married Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, to be fashion’s newly anointed savior not only because of her grace and taste but because, as the Times put it “she is the anti-Kardashian.”
So there you have it, the newest spectrum of love and loathe in the fashion world. On one end a reality TV star who carries herself like a queen and on the other a young socialite who one day will be. However the differences between Kim and Kate don’t start and end with what the TV cameras see. With her modeling career, her chain of retail stores and now a clothing collection available worldwide Kim Kardashian has long been seen as a driving force in fashion, whether she is driving it in the right direction is a matter of personal opinion. Kate Middleton has also managed to be a force to be reckoned with in fashion, but where Kim is very fashion forward Kate has clearly gone the more traditional path. Which is why it is so intriguing to see her considered an innovator.
Has modern fashion jumped the shark in it’s own way? Could it be that traditional tastes and more elegant and timeless style is now so out of place in a world full of designers trying to out-do one and other that classic is the new fashion forward? Or is this more of a matter of “it’s not what you wear but how you wear it”; with a shameless self promoter being pitted against a woman who just turned down the cover of Vogue to follow more charitable pursuits stirring a desire from fashionistas everywhere to see celebrity that celebrates something other than itself?
Regardless of whether it is their unique styles or the substance of their very difference personal character that is driving this division, one thing is clear: fashion watchers the world over have placed Kim Kardashian on one end of the spectrum with Kate Middleton holding up the other. Either way the most important question for anyone to ask themselves about this new Kardashian-Middleton index is (as it always is in the fashion world)which side is your style on?
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