The ordeal of Kim Kardashian West — who was left tied up after a $10 million (Dh36.7 million) jewel heist in her private Paris residence — dominated talk among editors at Fashion Week. It cast a gray cloud over collections that otherwise were meant to exude joy and creativity.
Some editors raised questions about the security in a city that remains under a state of emergency following a spate of extremist attacks, and others said the heist would discourage celebrities from coming back to Paris in the future.
Then there were those who said that life in the Paris Fashion Week “bubble” would continue as normal.
But for all, the Kardashian ordeal provoked shock and surprise — and all agreed there were lessons to be learnt to prevent another such crime.
“Total shock. We’ve been talking about it in every front row I’ve sat in,” said Christina Binkley, the Wall Street Journal fashion columnist.
“Celebrities here are dripping in jewels. They are a great target. I bet you there’s going to be higher security. You’re not going to be seeing them walking in on their own. Who would walk around Paris on your own knowing there’s people casing you for your $5 million ring? Of course, in the future, they’ll think twice about coming,” she added.
Cathy Horyn, former New York Times Fashion Editor, expressed incredulity that Kardashian’s security detail didn’t avert it.
“She already had [celebrity accoster Vitalii Sediuk] bothering her this week. I’m sure she is now questioning how she could have been more careful, how she behaves, because Kim tends to travel with more fanfare and more publicity around her, purposefully. That’s been part of her shtick,” she said.
Others played it down.
“I don’t think it was discouraging other celebrities from coming to Paris because Kardashian is a uniquely high profile person whose career is all about showing her personal life to the public. Everyone knows where she stays, so it’s easy for her to make herself the target for this kind of robbery,” said Yoanna Liu, fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar China.
“Unlike Kim Kardashian, I don’t have millions of dollars of jewellery in my bag,” said Luke Lietch of Vogue Runway.
“But, yes it’s definitely something that’s affected the texture of fashion week. There’s no doubt that people have said today that it presents a bad image of Paris,” he said.
