It may be a rare occurrence to get an amazing great idea for something creative, think about a film, a novel or a fashion collection, but it isn't certainly that rare to be sidetracked by life, and end up not being able to develop what you had in mind for months or, in some cases, even years.
So it happened that reality TV star Kim Kardashian one day had a bright idea for a Spanx shapewear brand with items in the most disparate skin tones. The market for slimming and smoothing shape enhancing underwear is huge and Kardashian had in mind shorts, tank tops, and bodysuits among the other designs.
Time passed, though, and in the end it took her 15 years to actually make it happen. She finally did so and shared on Instagram pictures of the garments shot by Vanessa Beecroft on Tuesday.
Yet it wasn't the shoot featuring Kardashian surrounded by models in various skin tones and styles or the contents of the collection (that includes second-skin bodywear from XXS to 4XL in nine shades) that surprised people, but the name of the brand – Kimono.
The term was supposed to be a play on her name, but the problem is that "kimono" is also a word defining a traditional Japanese garment. "Kimono is my take on shapewear and solutions for women that actually work," the celebrity stated on Instagram. But social media users accused her of cultural appropriation and disrespect (you will find further criticism under the #KimOhNo tag on Twitter).
Kardashian is at present pursuing a legal career and working as a trainee lawyer with two mentoring lawyers (it is possible to get qualification in California and other four US states, apprenticing with a practicing lawyer or judge), so you wonder why she didn't hire an advisor to help her finding a proper and more original name for this brand (its site doesn't offer any explanations about the actual name of the brand).
Yet there was actually some kind of legal plan behind this debatable choice: Kardashian applied indeed for eleven trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office under her business venture, Kimono Intimates, Inc., including Kimono Body, Kimono Intimates and Kimono World to sell a wide range of products, from lingerie to cosmetics.
The office granted her trademark to the word "kimono" written in a bubble-like font designed by Kim's husband Kanye West (and asked clarification of other trademarks, including Kimono Solutionwear), but it suspended the wordmark application for the word "Kimono" written in a less recognisable and more generic font. In a nutshell, so far she has a trademark on the word "kimono" when it is used in that particular stylized font.
This means that we can still use the word kimono without fearing to be sued by Kim Kardashian. That said, the choice remains questionable as it showed a will to appropriate a word and a part of a traditional culture and separate it from its original meaning (while in yesterday's post we looked at another form of cultural appropriation...) and, understandably, a lot of consumers didn't seem to like it (at the moment there is also a petition on Change.org to "Say No to Kim Kardashian's 'KIMONO'"). Still, as they say, bad publicity is better than no publicity, and in the growing market of shapewear, Kim definitely managed to get all the attention she desperately wanted.
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