Kylie Jenners lion head gown at Paris Fashion Week draws criticism from fans – no animals were harmed.
Paris Fashion Week opened with a roar when Kylie Jenner arrived at the season’s first show with a lion’s head on her shoulder.
The Schiaparelli gown, which also appeared on the runway, was “made of faux fur of foam, wool and silk, and hand-painted to look as life-like as possible,” the brand said on Instagram.
To make things abundantly clear, the brand added capital letters: “No animals were harmed in making this look.”
Models walk in a portrait of Josephine Baker by artist Mikalin Thoma at Dior’s Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2023 show at Paris Fashion Week.
But choosing the controversial youngest scion of the Kardashian-Jenner clan to debut a gown that’s open to interpretation may have been a misstep for the French fashion house.
Commenters on social media argued that if anyone wore a real lion head, it would be Jenner. Several Twitter users appeared to mistake the head for a real piece of leather.
Kylie Jenners lion head gown at Paris Fashion Week
Some of the backlashes were more subtle. A comment on Schiaparelli’s Instagram post, which has attracted more than 600 likes, said: “We need to stop projecting animals as luxury ‘products’.
They may be made of foam but they are endangered species that need to be protected.” Historically their pelts have been killed to be turned into clothing.
The fashion house, which strongly ties to the Surrealist art movement, was originally established in 1927. While the outdoor animal motifs remained when Todd’s group revived the brand in 2012, the house later abandoned its real fur golden days.
Not all animal rights activists bothered the lion, with PETA president Ingrid Newkirk praising the look. She told TMZ that the brand’s collection of three-dimensional animal heads was “fantastically innovative” and “could be a statement against trophy hunting, in which lion families are torn apart to satisfy human egos.”
Kylie Jenners lion head gown at Paris Fashion Week
Jenner’s look was one of a series of faux fur clothing designed by Daniel Roseberry. The collection also included a black wolf head crafted by Naomi Campbell, and a strapless snow leopard gown, with an equally realistic head attached to the bodice.
Outside the show at the Petit Palais, musician Doja Cat also turned (human) heads. Her entire face and body were painted red and studded with 30,000 Swarovski crystals.
The complex visual effects makeup, dubbed “Doja’s Inferno” by makeup artist Pat McGrath who created it, took more than five hours to apply.
In the show notes, Rosebery wrote: “What appealed to me in ‘Inferno’ wasn’t just the drama of Dante’s creation—it was how perfect a metaphor for the suffering that every artist or creative person experiences when we sit before Screen or Sketchpad.
The Inferno theme may be a nod to the designer’s process, but it may apply equally to the collection’s reception.
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