New York Magazine - USA (2019-11-25)

48 newyork| november25–december8, 2019

Didyoujustturn40?

Notyet.I wasbornin1980,somy

decadesarealwayssoeasyforme.

I neverlookat it politically. I don’t look

atit like, “TheObamayearsarethe 20 10s.”

I justrecentlygotintopolitics,andI

wouldn’t evensay I’mintopolitics,but

justreallyawareofpolitics.Forsomerea-

son,attheendofthisdecade,it’s sucha

hottopic—Ithinkinthe pop-culture

realmtoo.WithObama,ourfirst black

president,thatwasthefirsttimethat I

voted.That wassuchanexcitingtime,so

different.To me,though,my decadeis

mapped out by my TV show: What was I

doing seasons one to five, five to ten?

How did your 30s begin?

I remember exactly where I was.I was in

New York City filming Kourtney and Kim

Take New York. I was single. We were going

to go to Vegas to celebrate my 30th birth-

day. My sisters saved up and got me these

silver crystal-spike Louboutins that I

dreamedofandwouldneverhavespent

thatmuchmoney on.AndI worethisstrap-

lesssilverdress,withlonghair,andwepar-

tiedanddida nightclubinVegas.

Anotherwaythat I measuremy time

line,whichisreallyridiculoustoa lotof

people,butit’ s my reality, is my glamperi-

ods.Inthebeginningofthedecade,I was

alwayswearingLouboutinheels.It was

alwaysaboutbig,wavyhair, parteddown

themiddle.Weweredoingeverythingas

sistersat that point.ThetrioofKourtney,

Kim,andKhloe.Alwaysleoparddresses

andskintightHervéLéger,shoppingat

Intermix. And then I began kind of elevat-

ing from that. I didn’t know who Carine

Roitfeld was. I didn’t know anyof that

until I’d say, like, 2012, 2013, when I met

Kanye. ^1 Well, not met, but really con-

nected with him romantically.

Your first perfume came out in 2010.

When did you realize that you had become

big business? That you were a mogul?

I willsayaboutfragrance:Thatwas

alwaysmy mom’s andmy No.1 goal.We

haddreamedoffragrancesincetheday we

everdreamedofanything.ElizabethTay-

lor.You’vemadeit.

Wasthere a momentwhenyourealized

thatyour endorsementwasapowerful

thing?

Yeah.Um.My mommightknowif you

wantmetocallher,just togetyoua really

specificthing.Don’t write,like, “Shehadto

callhermom.”I mean...Youcould,it’s

funny, but—

Itisfunny.

[Calls Kris Jenner] Hey, I’m sitting here

in an interview, and the question that he’s

asking me is “Was there a specific moment

when I realized that I was worthy of an

endorsement?” Like, it would blow up if I

said I liked it. Kind of like when Kylie said,

“Snapchat sucks.” And then it tanked. I

would honestly maybe say Dubai at the

milkshake thing ... Yeah. Yeah. Okay ... I

1 Kardashian West has said Kanyedidn’t know

who she was when they first metaround

2003 on a music-video set. “Whois Kim

Kardajan?” Kardashian West remembers

Kanye asking his friends. She marriedNBA

player Kris Humphries in 2011,

and the marriage lasted for

ited

s

fashion show.

after Keeping Up

With the Kardashians

wrapped its first season

on E!, Senator Barack

Obama won the Iowa

caucuses. Both would

become juggernauts,

setting the tone for

much of the coming decade. Kim Kardashian West, the show’s star, not only understood the changes that

were just beginning to disrupt much of the culture; she herself demonstrably shifted it, altering the way

we understand fame and even the internet. And by filtering her own very particular reality through tech-

nology, she utterly changed the beauty businessand alsoour idea of what a mogul is. Meanwhile, the

Kardashian-Jenners presented a fascinatingversion ofthemodern blended American family, one that

started conversations about everything fromtransrightstomental health to addiction to cultural appro-

priation at what seemed like every dinner tableinAmerica.¶ When I visited her at the minimalist palace

she shares with her husband, Kanye West,andtheir fourchildren in the gated community of Hidden

Hills in Calabasas, California, there was a small army of men out front wrapping thousands of tiny white

Christmas lights around trees lining the driveway. Inside the front door, I took off my shoes and padded

along the endless hallway to the kitchen, where I found Kardashian West, dressed in jeans and a long-

sleeved T-shirt, seated in the breakfast nook and drinking a glass mug of milky coffee. The island in the

kitchen was resplendent with still-hanging-on floral arrangements sent for her birthday, October 21.

Exactly one o th

FOOTNOTES

4  Kardashian first met with Donald Trump in May

2018 on behalf of Alice Marie Johnson, a then-63-

year-old grandmother who was serving a life

sentence without parole for a first-time nonviolent

drug offense. Trump commuted Johnson’s sentence

a week after their meeting. Kardashian has since

returned to the White House to promote a ride-

sharing program to help the formerly incarcerated,

played a role in the signing of the First Step Act, and

pushed for A$AP Rocky’s release from a Swedish

jail in July (as mentioned in calls from Gordon

Sondland, read during the impeachment hearings).

2 The National

reported 3,000

people in

attendance.

3

Winter 2014.