There’s fashion, and then there are modern marvels of engineering. This weekend, Kim Kardashian West defied gravity in a Thierry Mugler gown with daring cutouts and very strategically-placed crisscrossed straps. Kardashian rocked the gown at Hollywood Beauty Awards in New York City, which had a high temperature of 36 degrees that day.
Mugler was known for his fetish-inspired clothing, and the straps of this dress resemble a harness. The straps in the back of the dress appear more supportive and substantial to keep the front side in place. The gown also features a high thigh slit, which Kardashian paired with clear acrylic heels, a trend she has been sporting for the past year.
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Her hairstylist, Chris Appleton, was also her date to the event, and Kardashian honored him with the Hair Dresser of the Year Award. He shared a photo of her updo, with lines so sharp it could slice through the fabric of her gown. Okay, not really, but it is exceptionally fabulous and perfectly offsets the rest of her look.
The vintage dress is from 1998, but it somehow looks like it came from the future. The New York Times, in its contemporaneous review of the collection, wryly noted that “one could wince when the nipple dress arrived.” Mugler himself was interested making his models look like “superwomen,” and there’s no denying that Kardashian looks like a costumed hero.
Predictably, the internet went wild for her gown, with many noting how hard those straps are working. Comments like "I’ve just lost my ovaries, they exploded, and I don’t even have any" and "That dress is EVERYTHING" were all over Appleton's Instagram post.