Kim Kardashian is defending Kimono Solutionwear, saying she has no plans to produce actual Japanese kimono as part of the line — and no plans to change the name, despite backlash.

Kardashian launched the line of shaping garments Tuesday, introducing it as something she’s been “passionate about” for 15 years.

She was promptly accused of cultural appropriation for using the centuries-old term in a way that’s completely disassociated from its Japanese roots. Hey, that’s bound to happen when you name a girdle after a garment so steeped in tradition that it has rules about how you put it on.

Update: Kim Kardashian West ditches Kimono and will relaunch shapewear line with a new name »


“Kimono is my take on shapewear and solutions for women that actually work,” she said on social media, noting that she had always had to cut up her own shaping things when there was a chance they would show — like when she, as so many women do, wears a hip-high slit skirt on a red carpet.

Turns out there’s a Kimono for that.

Oh my god I don’t have to cut one side of my spanx anymore!!!!! — christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) June 25, 2019

Chrissy Teigen approved of her pal’s lopsided-legged “solution short,” tweeting Tuesday, “Oh my god I don’t have to cut one side of my spanx anymore!!!!!”


The brand is “a nod to the beauty and detail that goes into a garment,” Kardashian said in a statement to the New York Times on Thursday. While noting that she has “deep respect” for the kimono’s place in Japanese culture, she told the paper she has no plans to change the name.

“I understand and have deep respect for the significance of the kimono in Japanese culture,” she said.

The trademark “will allow me to use the word for my shapewear and intimates line but does not preclude or restrict anyone, in this instance, from making kimonos or using the word kimono in reference to the traditional garment,” she added.

Welp. That should help at the G-20 summit.


A rep for Kardashian did not respond to The Times’ request for comment Friday.

cdz@latimes.com

@theCDZ on Twitter and Instagram