Kim Kardashian, an established member of the style coterie, has been testing out some new looks in Italy this week. And good for her! Following her very public divorce from rapper Kanye West, Kardashian is indulging in a deluge of sartorial exploration after a very long drought in the land of muted neutrals. Twitter, it seems, is not happy about it. Critics have taken to the platform to critique Kim Kardashian’s new style after Kanye West—and I, for one, am not pleased.

Why? Because Kim Kardashian can dress herself just fine! While West did have an impact on his then-wife’s style during their relationship, I don’t understand why Kim’s more playful looks post-divorce are causing such a stir on the web. Now, I’m sure that the star is no newbie to Internet debacles, but this fleet of new attacks feels more personal than most.

Let’s actually examine the look in question, shall we? While spending time with designers Donatella Versace and Kim Jones, Kardashian opted to wear a gray midi dress from one of Tom Ford’s Gucci collections from the ‘90s, a pair of strappy black heels by Helmut Lang, a cropped red cardigan and a sci-fi-inspired trucker hat.

Source: Instagram

As soon as she posted the pictures to Twitter, comments from her followers immediately began to pour in. Many recalled a tweet that West posted back in 2012 that read “I have to dress Kim every day so she doesn’t embarrass me.”


“Guess now we know he wasn’t lying” one user chimed in while reposting a screenshot of the tweet. Another user replied to the images with a tweet that read: “Are you able to hire Kanye as a stylist at least because this is…”

There is so much to say about the politics of a bunch of anonymous Twitter users telling a 40-year-old woman how to dress, but let’s start with the fact that it’s patronizing and honestly, misogynistic. To claim that Kardashian, who happens to own a lucrative clothing line, can’t get dressed in the morning without her ex-husband’s input is insulting.  She’s been pulling out amazing looks since well before she and West ever got together–and she will be pulling off amazing looks well into the future.

It’s also not necessarily a hot take to say that going through any sort of breakup often leads to an aesthetic reboot of sorts, whether that’s a new haircut or an entirely new wardrobe—and Kardashian’s situation is no different. On the ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ reunion special, Kim was asked by Andy Cohen if her style was going to change in this next phase of her life. She’s a newly single woman and is about to be a lawyer, in case y’all forgot.

“I thought about this. And then I thought, ‘You can do it all. You can do whatever you want,” The mother of four said. “Like I remember going to the White House one time and I was like, ‘Ooh, I just posted a bikini pic, you know, I hope they’re not looking at my Instagram while I’m in here!’ And then I thought, ‘You know what, you’ve gotta be you.’”

The bottom line is, Kim can do whatever she wants. That also means that she can wear whatever she wants, too. Her style on this recent trip to Italy is definitely more playful than any of her other recent ‘fits and honestly, that’s a sign of the times. It’s Hot Vaxxed Summer—if you can’t let loose and dress with reckless abandon now, you might never.