The many adventures of Kim Kardashian in Rome
Kim Kardashian has been compared to many people in her lifetime, but Audrey Hepburn probably isn’t one of them. Reaching as it would be to draw parallels between Kim and Audrey herself, Kim’s recent vacay certainly draws parallels with Princess Ann, the character Hepburn plays in Roman Holiday. The 1953 film charts Ann’s rebellion as she becomes frustrated with her tightly scheduled life, sneaking out of her country’s embassy to enjoy her freedom (and a romance with Gregory Peck) in Rome — though not without a battle to avoid the press and captors who want her to return to her duties.
Which begs the question: is Kim trying to tell us something? Is her own Roman Holiday as innocent as it seems, or a not-so-coded statement? She famously married Kanye West in Rome: on this return visit, like Princess Ann, is she celebrating her new-found freedom? In the words of the film’s original trailer: “Come along and share their gay and giddy holiday. Because all the things that happen to them are what you would hope for on the best day of your life.” For those who may have missed them, here are some of the highlights.
She shared a topless selfie
Okay, not quite — but she cemented her presence in Rome by wrapping herself in a snowy white, artfully draped and wrinkled bed sheet, captioning the snap, “Good morning Rome. Good night LA.” When it comes to the #bedselfie, Kim has form: in 2014, she shared a pic of her and a sleeping Kanye on holiday in Ibiza, while in 2016, she shared another of them kissing on a bed in an out-take for a fashion shoot. She’s also posted pics with her children snuggling in various beds, which makes this solo shot all the more strident. In minimal make-up and sporting new extra-long extensions, she looks like a billion-dollar mermaid.
She visited the Vatican
Kim’s holiday marks one of her first public appearances since Keeping up with the Kardashians drew to a close after a 20 season/14 year run, so it was never destined to be a low-key break in Tahoe. This is a woman with something to prove — her status — and prove it she has, by storming the Vatican in a tight, white, off-shoulder, quasi-transparent lace dress by Mexican designer Victor Barragán.
That it hailed from a collection inspired by the persecution of Mexican witchcraft practitioners whose beliefs were deemed heretical by the Catholic church is surely no coincidence. Even so, Kim had to put a coat on before entering the Vatican. No one — not even KK — is allowed to enter the Sistine Chapel without adhering to its dresscode, which forbids any items considered offensive to “Catholic morality and common decency”.
...with Kate Moss
Summer wouldn’t be summer without Kate Moss popping up on a yacht somewhere surrounded by her usual cabal of friends including Sadie Frost, Rosemary Ferguson and Fran Cutler. This summer, for reasons best known to herself, Kate swapped her usual holiday companions for Kim Kardashian. Kate and her model daughter, Lila Grace, shared Kim’s Vatican tour — Kim in her aforementioned see-through dress, Kate more modestly attired in a respectful black knee-length skirt and black shirt.
The trio enjoyed private views of Michaelangelo’s art and an archive of robes dating back to 1500. Whether said robes were viewed for research purposes and are destined to form the basis of a hot new collab, KxK (Kim x Kate — or will it be Kate x Kim?) is yet to be revealed.
She ate spaghetti
It simply isn’t possible to holiday in Italy and not indulge in pasta: carbs are mandatory at every meal. Sure, a skin-tight lacquered tortoiseshell Dolce & Gabbana corset dress wouldn’t be every woman’s first outfit choice when faced with imbibing 2,000,000 calories-worth of spaghetti but Kim, as we all know, isn’t every woman. And so she matched her dress to her clutch bag to her sandals to her sunglasses to her nails, posing in front of the Trevi fountain for an Instagram post that has so far gathered almost three million likes. Take that, Kanye, with your dreary trip to your ranch in Mexico.
She got on a scooter
Just when you thought the electric scooter’s reputation had been killed stone dead by Dominic West (who, coincidentally, was photographed in Rome riding on one with Lily James last October, prompting rumours of an affair), along comes Kim in a white leather mini skirt and a teeny-tiny white crossover bandeau top to make them look edgy again. While Dominic and Lily violated Italy’s driving laws by riding tandem, the country has no laws forbidding people to ride them wearing high heels. Dangerous? Foolhardy? Maybe, but it looked good on the ‘gram.
She met some legends
“LEGENDS!” she captioned her final Rome post, which was a pic of Kim in a “sci-fi fantasy” baseball cap standing beside designers Donatella Versace and Kim Jones. Jones also posted a teaser of today’s Fendi show, a video clip showing Kate Moss and daughter Lila. What can it all mean? Why are so many famouses in Rome? Whatever, bring on Kim’s next travel odyssey. With the rest of us grounded for the foreseeable, we can’t wait for the next instalment.
