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Kim Kardashian continued to flex her vintage prowess at the annual Chanel and Charles Finch Pre-Oscar dinner last night. The ensemble du jour? Well, it needed to pay homage to the hallowed French house hosting the evening’s event, of course. And Kardashian opted to pull from and reference two seminal Chanel shows in both her glam and garb of choice.
Designed by Karl Lagerfeld for the opulent 1992 fall couture show, Kardashian’s black gown features a Medusa-style corset with a structured bodice and delicate spaghetti straps, falling into a pleated black silk skirt and chiffon jellyfish underskirt. The dress, which took Chanel’s artisans over 100 hours to make, was originally worn on the runway by supermodel and Chanel darling Helena Christensen. Kardashian and her stylist Dani Levi paired the dress with a silver chained, quilted black Chanel bag and black pumps.
While on the runway, Christiansen wore the dress with a fantastical headpiece by legendary milliner Philip Treacy, Kardashian put her own spin on the look with her glam. She instead chose the Barbirific 1995 fall couture show as a reference for her hair—and the one and only Claudia Schiffer. On the runway, Schiffer’s golden hair was extended to Rapunzel-like lengths and secured with three black bows, and her eyes were lined in exaggerated black liner.
Kardashian turned to her go-to team: Chris Appleton for hair and MUA Rokael Lizama. “We have had this look on the books for ages and it fit perfectly tonight,” Appleton tells Vogue exclusively. “We put a more modern spin on it with a middle part and no bangs. The snatched sides with the cheekbones with top part out and middle part more modern and clean without the bangs.”
To create the look, Appleton says he left the hair from the temple to the crown out, and to contour her face, pulled back the ponytail in line with her cheekbones. “Then, I created the middle part and pulled it back on the sides so it doesn’t pull the forehead, to suit her face perfectly,” he explains. He added three bows and extended her hair to 40 inches long.
“The most crucial part of the look was about getting the perfect placement of the ponytail,” Appleton says.
The rest of her beauty was centered on her bouncy pink blush and creamy pink lips. Lizama used the Alignment Lip Shader and Allèluia Refined Velvet Lip Creme from his own brand and the Anastasia Beverly Hills Impeccable Foundation for Kardashian’s radiant complexion.
Appleton and Kardashian are a deeply held partnership in glam now, seeing her through experiments in aesthetics and eras since they began working together in 2016. “I love to create with Kim, It’s really an art when we are doing looks together,” he says. “Glam is always fun, we are always experimenting, always trying things. There is a confidence within our relationship. I know what suits her and what she will like.”
Pieces from the 1992 Fall couture collection like Kim’s dress of choice—a favorite of Pinterest and nostalgia Instagram accounts—are few and far between. But online, you can find Kardashian’s exact dress on eBay for a cool $50,000 and First Dibs for $51,000. It’s also a collection beloved by celebrities in an era of abundant archive pulls: Dua Lipa chose the white bridal dress worn by Claudia Schiffer from the 1992 collection for the 2023 Met Gala.
The fabled 1995 Fall couture is quite the same. You can find a yellow cropped jacket from the equally loved spring 95 ready-to-wear collection available on First Dibs for $13,700, and Japan’s legendary Amore Vintage has a page dedicated to the collection.
We know Kim Kardashian is fond of vintage clothing and jewelry–designs from Mugler are a favorite, and she’s also purchased jewelry from the estate of the late Princess Diana. And lest we forget, there’s the dress she borrowed and wore to The Met Gala in 2022. Clearly, she’s a fan—and collector—of fashion history and now an even more storied scholar of vintage glam with Appleton’s guidance.
