Kim Kardashian's most controversial fashion moments of all time

Kim stepped out in controversial style for the final weekend of her 44th year. She attended the Academy Museum Gala wearing a head-turning look from Maison Margiela's SS25 Couture collection. The nude-hued piece featured a figure-hugging strapless dress, draping around the arms and a shocking matching face mask that covered her entire face.

This might be the most comical controversial look, because her daughter, North West, was famously her biggest critic. For the Met Ball themed: Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, she stunned in a sculpted bodysuit, accompanied by lashings of dripping freshwater pearls. The look from Schiaparelli was a design masterpiece, but North West told her, “The pearls look fake.”

The Met Gala is the ultimate place to make a fashion statement, but this one caused a major cultural divide. Kim stepped out in the exact dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in 1962 to sing Happy Birthday to President John F. Kennedy. Aside from the fact that many felt she’d potentially damage an archival piece created for a cultural icon,  another controversial part of her look , which hadn’t been worn for decades, was when she told Vogue that she lost 16 pounds in three months to fit into it. “It was this or nothing,” she said.

In yet another bizarre face-covering moment, Kim stepped out on the famous Metropolitan Museum stairs in New York for the In America: A Lexicon of Fashion themed Met Ball, wearing head-to-toe (literally) Balenciaga. The look consisted of a completely black, figure-hugging, long-sleeved dress with a train.

By now, Kim has made it abundantly clear that the Met Gala is her personal, experimental runway. In 2019, she opted for a custom Thierry Mugler dress that was dripping with crystal ‘water droplets’, ruching and sheer sleeves. Whilst the design was a technical masterpiece, the silhouette featured an impossibly cinched waist. Critics debated whether the extreme corseting glorified unrealistic body standards, while others praised it as a work of art.

Kim changed into another Mugler creation for the after-party - this time a blue latex mini dress that was equally as daring. The look featured a skin-tight, iridescent blue latex material, styled to resemble water glistening on the skin. It came with a matching blue wig cut into a wet-look wig and sky-high heels, leaning into the aquatic fantasy. Whilst very much in line with the evening’s Camp: Notes on Fashion theme, it also drew criticism for its extreme tightness. She also received praise for fully committing to a concept and collaborating with a fashion legend.

Before the 'wet look' gown, she wore another ultra-cinched dress by the designer that sparked conversations. The dress, which first appeared on the Spring 1998 runway, featured very little coverage across the decolletage…

Whilst this might not be the most controversial, the naked dressing trend was not as cool-girl-approved in 2014 as it is now. To appear on Seth Myers’ sofa, she wore a khaki crochet gown that was completely see-through, using black underwear as a part of her outfit.