Eye: Kim Kardashian West Is Lensed By Daniel Jackson With Words By Devin Friedman For Allure US
/Kim Kardashian West covers the October 2017 issue of Allure Magazine, styled by Beth Fenton for images by Daniel Jackson. / Makeup by Pat McGrath; hair by Garren
Kardashian is a bit late for her simply-brilliant Allure interview with GQ writer Devin Friedman. When I say 'brilliant', the word applies to both humans. In fact, Friedman's writing sparkles -- not with the common broad-stroke, high-and-mighty intellectual condemnation of Kardashian's character on behalf of millions of Twitter minions -- but with verve and personal insights.
I can't remember when I last read such an insightful, entertaining and clever interview -- one definitely dependent on the creative and psychoanalytical talents of the writer. Why am I not surprised over the visually delectable abundance of the landing page on Devin Friedman's landing page?
Friedman begins:
"It is 8 a.m. I wait for her in the sumptuous lobby. Baccarat, for those who do not shop for $10,000 vases, is a French company that makes crystal. And being inside the Baccarat Hotel is like being inside a fine crystal lamp where an urbane French genie who wears Louis Vuitton suits lives. Here’s the kind of place it is: $46 from Le Menu du Petit Déjeuner at the Petit Salon in the hotel gets you two eggs, potatoes, bacon, juice, and…coffee! There is an actual crown on display on a shelf full of curios and crystals, unless it’s the world’s most bejeweled serving dome."
Kim K moves breathlessly, honestly and equally brilliantly through the interview. On the subject of her being somewhat scandalous, Kardashian West admits that her publicist want her to tone down her penchant for getting naked.
“Yes,” she says. “I’m like, I’m going to tone it down. But then I’m like, Wait, I can’t be doing it in 10 years, so — I might as well. I don’t know what the age cutoff is.”
But then again, her pink, latex House of Harlot dress is perhaps better than naked, reminding us that Kim K is in very, very good shape these days. Why? Because she works out about 90 minutes a day.
In the wake of Twitter's outrage for Kim K's audacity of channeling Jackie O in the September 2017 issue of Interview Magazine, Friedman further humanizes she who "has the crushing instincts necessary to lay waste to our culture and create an America in her image (or is it that she's created America's image?), she also has the instinct to preserve the humanity of her family."
Twitter has yet to differentiate Kim K from before and after the Paris robbery last year, when "she was held at gunpoint and bound and robbed in a hotel by masked gunmen." Kardashian West gave a long and candid interview with Ellen about the change in her views and values after that traumatic event. In case you haven't notices, Kim K has toned down her style considerably and has a conscientiously updated relationship with big baubles.
Just as America's top mom included her daughter North in the Interview photo shoot by Steven Klein -- along with a few choice words --, Kim K chooses a North story to explain her new attitude. Expressing her anxiety about going to Paris last October for the fashion shows over terror concerns, Kardashian West traveled with a little plastic treasure box filled with little fake plastic jewelry. "Mommy, this will keep you safe when you go to Paris." Indeed it did, in the endless minutes when Kim K was in full-frontal fear for her life.
The interview ends with Kardashian-West rising in her Baccarat-infused glory, off to see what North's up to. Friedman delves into his own inner experience; after all, he has just interviewed a truly self-made American tycoon.
"It is something that, despite all the jewels and Calabasas houses and red carpet gowns and original Basquiats and Rolls-Royces and pairs of Yeezy boots she has, penetrates down into the depths of Kim Kardashian West’s humanity, which, at least after spending a few hours with her, I believe is very much there."