Kim Kardashian may make it seem as though the world is one huge runway, but on Wednesday, she walked down a real one at Balenciaga’s most recent fashion presentation during Paris Haute Couture Week.
Kardashian walked the runway at the original Balenciaga couture salon while wearing a full-length black gown with a sweetheart neckline, gloves, and boots, which is the brand’s characteristic shape. In the front row, her mother, Kris Jenner, and daughter North West, were part of a family gathering.
Although in the late 2000s she walked for LA Fashion Week and her sister’s line Dash, this marks Kardashian’s first Paris Fashion Week show and possibly her most prestigious modeling honor to date.
Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa, Bella Hadid, Naomi Campbell, and Kim Kardashian are just a few of the A-listers who walked for Balenciaga and were all chosen for the show. In a voluminous, high-shine black ball gown with a tall, structured neck, supermodel legend Campbell was spotted bursting through the salon’s curtained door frames as actor Nicole Kidman revived her modeling career from the 1980s. Models wore glossy, black, full-coverage facemasks for most of the first half of the runway, drawing attention to their well-known faces even more.
It’s possible that Balenciaga’s choice to cast a star-studded show is an effort to bring the world of haute couture to a wider audience. It unveiled a “couture store” within the iconic 1937 Parisian salon on Wednesday, the same day as its show. CEO Cédric Charbit hoped to take the mystery out of the “extremely exclusive environment” of haute couture by letting younger customers see special pieces up close and learn about the important ateliers.
When Kardashian was named the face of Balenciaga in February, her professional relationship with the brand’s creative director, Denma, and Balenciaga reached new heights this year. She had previously sported Balenciaga pieces on a number of high-profile occasions, such as a head-to-toe black ensemble at the Met Gala in 2021 and a hot pink spandex ensemble when hosting Saturday Night Live later that year. She posted on Instagram stories, “Walked in my first Paris Fashion Week show and a couture one at that!” “OMG! a wake-up call Thank you, Demna and Balenciaga. “
