Halloween. A time for metamorphosis, for shedding skin and embracing the grotesque, the glamorous, the utterly absurd. It's a playground for the imagination, a chance to revel in the outré. Yet, scrolling through Kendall Jenner's yearly parade of costumes, one can't help but feel a distinct lack of…bite. Where's the subversive wink? The unexpected twist? The frisson of genuine surprise?
Take, for instance, her 2019 Pamela Anderson homage. A blonde wig, a red swimsuit, prosthetic breasts. Technically accurate, yes. But where's the irony? The commentary? Anderson, in her heyday, was a lightning rod, a walking, talking challenge to conventional beauty standards. Jenner's interpretation felt flat, a Xerox of a Xerox, lacking the heat, the messy, complicated humanity of the original.
And this isn't a phenomenon unique to that year. The pattern repeats. A fairy costume, all gossamer wings and glitter, feels more suited to a theme park princess than a cultural powerhouse. A sexy cowgirl? Been there, seen that, bought the Stetson (probably from a vintage store in West Hollywood).
I remember a Halloween party I attended years ago, back when fashion felt a little less polished, a little more raw. A young designer, barely known then, arrived as a couture chicken. Think shredded tulle feathers, a beak fashioned from a vintage handbag, and a trail of raw eggshells following her every move. It was outrageous, absurd, utterly unforgettable. The point wasn't literal representation, but rather a sly, knowing wink at the industry, at the pressure cooker of expectation. It was fashion as performance art, as social commentary. It was, dare I say, interesting.
That's what seems to be missing from Jenner's Halloween repertoire – a sense of risk, of playfulness, of genuine engagement with the act of dressing up. It's all so polished, so painstakingly curated, so…safe. And in a world saturated with perfectly filtered images, safety is the quickest route to irrelevance.
This isn't to say that Jenner lacks style. Her off-duty looks, the street style paparazzi shots, often display a keen eye and a willingness to experiment. But Halloween, with its inherent theatricality, demands something more. It's a chance to subvert expectations, to play with identity, to revel in the sheer joy of transformation.
Perhaps that's asking too much. Perhaps, in the age of social media scrutiny, the pressure to maintain a carefully crafted image outweighs the impulse to truly let loose. But one can't help but wonder: what would happen if Jenner, just once, decided to embrace the truly weird, the genuinely unexpected? What if she traded the predictable for the provocative, the safe for the subversive? Now that would be a Halloween costume worth talking about.
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