Nudity and Fame: The Kim Kardashian “W” Magazine Story

Kim Kardashian was famous long before last year’s “W” magazine issue, where she graced the cover with an artsy visual of her naked body, silver painted.

What brought her fame was not a reality show, but a Playboy spread. As ratings grow low, the history is repeating: sex and nudity always sell.

As expected, the magazine featuring a nude Kim Kardashian photographed full-frontal by artist Barbara Kruger made waves – and it still does. Despite how fast things like these sell, there’s always a story behind what first meets the eye.

Since Stefano Tonchi took over “W” as editor in chief with the September issue, there were many other shocking visuals on the cover, yet none so dissected and popular as Kim Kardashian’s full-frontal. Back in November, when the star received a copy of the magazine, she was in full shock (!).

“Oh my God, I’m more naked than I was in Playboy,” she told her sisters, in tears. But later, as the “too revealing” images brought more and more public and media attention, the star decided to “own” the pictures and things got better since.

A lot has changed in her life, and the once dreaded photographs appear to pay off. A gig for Midori (a Japanese liquor), shows that the star is as pretty in green as she was in silver, and that she doesn’t really need to show too much skin to be successful.

But as the noise around the infamous silver painted nude pictures seemed to fade, the star decided that there was time to bring them back under the spot light, and so they were featured last night in Kourtney and Kim Take New York on E!. Perhaps because the show is somehow losing popularity without Khloe, and it needed some “spice,” after all, nudity always sells, and her mother, Kris Jenner, seems to know this better than no other. Back in 2007 she was the one pushing her daughter to accept a Playboy gig:

“They might never ask you again. Our show isn’t on the air yet. No one knows who you are. Do it and you’ll have these beautiful pictures to look at when you’re my age.”

And from Playboy bunny, to producing her own PR show, The Spin Crowd, Kim Kardashian delivered quite a spectacle, and the thing is that she became rather predictable in her endeavors. Back in 2007 she had issues posing nude as well, and she “regretted” doing the shot, but the publicity that followed a Playboy spread made her change her mind eventually. She repeated the game for the “W” spread – the public is known to sympathize with stars who are “taken advantage of.”

Yet the public doesn’t really care about the act behind the camera – naked or dressed up, Kim Kardashian is losing momentum.