Kim Kardashian dons late Hollywood icon and jewel fanatic Elizabeth Taylor's £270k diamond earrings on the runway - adding fire to morbid claims she is 'obsessed with the dead'
The Skims mogul, 44, is no stranger to wearing items from some of the biggest stars that have now passed from Marilyn Monroe to Princess Diana.
And on Wednesday, Kim was at it again as she donned jewllerey from the late icon Elizabeth Taylor, on loan from Schwartz.
During Balenciaga 's fall 2025 couture show in Paris, the star turned heads in a dazzling pair of chandelier earrings.
According to reports, Schwartz purchased the Mike Todd Diamond Pendant Earrings at an auction, with a 2011 Christie listing revealing the final sale price as a whopping $374,500 (approximately £270k).
Kim also paid homage to Taylor through her outfit, sporting a beige body-hugging slip dress with lace trim in a nod to one of Elizabeth's looks in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof with Paul Newman in 1958.
This was inspired by the white number the actress wore in 1958's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
It comes after Kim addressed her fascination with the late A-lister during a chat with BBC last year. 'I was always drawn to Elizabeth Taylor,' she said. 'We were actually supposed to meet up for tea at her house, and then she fell ill.'
It seems that Kim has a penchant for wearing items belonging to dead celebrities, and has in the past spent tens of thousands on clothes previously belonging some of the biggest names.
The Skims founder has admitted in the past that she's 'obsessed' with auctions and has got the rest of her family involved with her passion, buying daughter North the hat Jackson wore in his Smooth Criminal music video, and her brother Rob a set of Elvis Presley's rings.
Kim turned heads at the 2024 LACMA Art + Film Gala as fans spotted the Attallah Cross pendant hanging around her neck.
The pricey item, set with amethysts and diamonds by Garrard, the former crown jeweller, was worn by Princess Diana on a number of occasions, including a charity event in 1987.
Named for its previous owner, Naim Attallah, the Palestinian-British businessman lent the amethyst and diamond piece to Diana throughout the 1980s.
Diana, Princess Of Wales, was pictured wearing the pendant on a string of pearls when she attended the 1987 Birthright charity gala, where she donned a purple velvet Catherine Walker gown.
The Attallah Cross was originally made by Garrand in the 1920s, and features square-cut amethysts surrounded by 5.25 carats of circular-cut diamonds.
Featuring 900 pearls, the late Princess Of Wales wore it at several events, including film and theatre premieres over the years before her death in 1997. It is one of the few jewels worn by the princess to have ever been sold at auction.
Kim purchased the Attallah Cross at a Sotheby's auction for just under $200,000 in 2023 - but wore it for the first time over the weekend.
She paired the vintage item with a plunging white gown - as fans took to social media to brand the mother-of-four as 'tone deaf' for her stylistic choice.
It's far from the first time Kim has worn a piece of clothing once owned by an A-lister who later passed away.
In 2022, Kim came under fire after donning Marilyn Monroe's $4.8million 'Happy Birthday Mr President' dress to the Met Gala.
Soon after, she was accused of damaging the nude gown by The Marilyn Monroe Collection, who said the dress had 'missing crystals' while some were left 'hanging by a thread.'
It comes after Kim divided opinion divided opinion by wearing Princess Diana's necklace at the LACMA Art + Film Gala in 2024
In an episode of The Kardashians, Kim revealed she'd 'begged' the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum to allow her to wear the dress.
She was loaned the gown by officials at the museum, where the dress has been stored in a temperature-controlled environment since it was bought for a record-breaking $5 million in 2016.
The offer had initially been withdrawn over concerns Kim's hips would damage the original dress.
'Great care was taken to preserve this piece of pop culture history,' Ripley's said.
'With input from garment conservationists, appraisers, and archivists, the garment's condition was top priority. Believe It or Not! no alterations were to be made to the dress and Kim even changed into a replica after the red carpet!'
Hundreds of fans took to the comments to point out the alleged damage in the 'before and after' photos shared by the Marilyn Monroe Collection, though there was no way to confirm the validity of the images.
'Missing so many crystals and those tears,' one person wrote. 'What a disaster!!'
Kim was the first person to don the gown since it was worn by Monroe in 1962. She admitted she lost 16 pounds in three weeks to fit into the dress, but she was still unable to zip it.
Speaking to Vogue about her iconic ensemble, the reality star insisted that she would never risk 'any damage' to the gown, and therefore took steps to ensure that she had a backup option before heading into the event itself.
'I'm extremely respectful to the dress and what it means to American history,' she said. 'I would never want to sit in it or eat in it or have any risk of any damage to it, and I won't be wearing the kind of body makeup I usually do.'
Kim said she went on a ruthlessly strict diet in order to wear the dress to the Met Gala, admitting she hadn't eaten 'carbs and sugar in three weeks.'
'I would wear a sauna suit twice a day, run on the treadmill, completely cut out all sugar and all carbs, and just eat the cleanest veggies and protein,' she said. 'I didn't starve myself, but I was so strict.'
At the time, social media users criticised Kim for 'borrowing clothes from the dead', drawing parallels between the Monroe dress and her penchant for purchasing items at auctions.
During Christmas 2019, Kim revealed on Instagram that she and her then-husband Kanye West had gifted their daughter North a jacket that belonged to Michael Jackson.
Kim bought the hat and one of Jackson's jackets at an auction in California in 2019, revealing it still had his make-up on it.
The pampering parents won the jacket worn by the Bad singer at auction for $65,625 that October.
The jacket was worn by the late pop-star for Elizabeth Taylor's 65th birthday party in 1997.
'We won this on an auction for Northie for Christmas and we had it tacked up so she could wear it,' Kim said.
'Kanye and I gave North this jacket, and, this was Michael Jackson's jacket that he wore with Elizabeth Taylor,' she shared with her millions of fans on social media.
'North is a really big Michael Jackson fan and we knew she would love this.'
'The sleeves are half tacked up so when she gets older we can untack the sleeve and it can grow with her and she can have this for her whole life.'
Kim added that her daughter, who was six at the time, was 'grateful' for her early Christmas present. 'She's so grateful and so excited,' she said.
The estimated selling price of the jacket had been between $10,000 and $20,000.
Kim also got her hands on the original white fedora worn by Michael in the iconic music video for his hit song Smooth Criminal.
She also outbid collectors at auctions of clothing and jewellery worn by Elvis
In a snap shared to her Instagram story, Kim wrote: 'North also got Michael's Smooth Criminal Hat. It still has his makeup on it.'
North later wore the hat in a video on the TikTok account she shares with her mother, as she dressed up as the Thriller singer.
Kim has also outbid collectors at auctions of clothing and jewellery worn by Elizabeth Taylor and Elvis.
She bought a set of Elizabeth's bangles for $64,900, and bought her brother Rob some of Elvis's rings as a Christmas present.
'My brother is the biggest Elvis Presley fan so I got him two of Elvis' rings for Christmas,' Kim gushed at the time.
The first ring, featuring an awe-inspiring ruby, was won at auction by Kim for $7K.
The second Elvis-worn ring went for $8K and was decorated with a row of sparkling diamonds.
Kardashian tagged Julien's Auctions, thanking them for her hefty purchases.
In 2017, she paid $379,500 for Jackie Kennedy's watch.
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