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In lieu of a runway show this season, Kanye West enlisted his wife, Kim Kardashian West, to debut his #YeezySeason6 collection, capturing the reality star going about her daily life in Calabasas, California, in paparazzi-style campaign images. But in true West fashion, that was just the beginning. A few weeks later, the designer got even more meta and unleashed a 16-person army of KKW clones on Instagram—Paris Hilton, Jordyn Woods, and Amina Blue among them—with each woman re-creating a different shot of Kardashian West donning the second-skin streetwear. The silvery lengths. The pillowy pout. The head-to-toe glow. Every resemblance was more striking than the next. While West’s stunt was a characteristically disruptive (and brilliant) branding move, it wasn’t just another headline-grabbing ode to his perpetual muse—it was idiosyncratic cultural commentary. Because in the larger scope of pop culture, emulating Kardashian West has become a seismic social phenomenon.
The most notorious—or, double-take inducing—of all Kardashian West’s doppelgängers is Sonia Ali, who regularly appears alongside her sister Fyza, another dead ringer for KKW (although it's worth pointing out here that technically, the Internet considers Fyza the Kylie Jenner to Sonia's Kim). Based in Dubai, the beauty blogging duo has amassed 700,000 Instagram followers on their joint account due in no small part to their Kardashian-esque features: Immaculate brows, full lips, hallowed cheekbones, and supernatural complexions. As one might expect, with the comparisons come accusations of plastic surgery and cosmetic enhancement, which is a strife that fellow Kim look-alike Kamilla Osman, who made headlines last fall when she stepped out with Jenner’s ex-boyfriend Tyga, knows all about. “I try to take things lightly, but the bullying and false accusations don’t make it easy,” says Osman. “I’ve learned to grow a thick skin and to never stop being myself.” While the 22-year-old fashion blogger admits to having work done on her nose and lips, she underlines the fact that she’s Azerbaijani, and Azerbaijan borders Armenia, which could explain predisposed similarities.
Likewise, Sonia and Fyza go out of their way to take the parallels in stride because they appreciate the more inclusive beauty ideals that Kardashian West has introduced to the mainstream. “Kim’s made ‘our look’ more acceptable in society,” says Sonia. “[And because of it,] women have become more confident and experimental with their hair and makeup.” So too agrees Egyptian model and actress Tara Emad, who is one of the top influencers in the Muslim community with more than a million Instagram followers. “[Kim] has had a [major] impact on beauty standards in the Middle East,” says Emad who, like Kardashian West, relishes in using social media to interact with her fanbase and propagate causes that are close to her, like her Help From Your Heart Foundation, which aims to raise awareness and support orphans and street children in Egypt. “It’s very empowering to see women all around the world be able to express themselves in any way they wish and get recognized.”
And much like Kardashian, these women don't apologize for their overt sensuality—in fact, they've made big business out of it, harnessing the power of their looks, whether real or augmented, to catapult careers or lucrative initiatives with self-made savvy. Brazilian pop star Anitta takes a page from Kardashian West’s book by promoting body positivity and celebrating her femininity with the content she blasts out to her 25 million Instagram followers. In her recent music video for the song “Vai Malandra,” which opens with a cropped-in shot of her derriere in thigh-grazing shorts, she specifically asked that her body not be retouched. “That butt is real,” she says. “I have cellulite like most women and I wanted to show it because body diversity is important. You don’t have to have that [idealized] bikini body to be perfect.”
And proving that Kardashian West’s influence extends to YouTube as well is 26-year-old Angeleno Hannah Stocking. Teaming her bombshell beauty with stop-everything-and-tag-your-friend sketch comedy, she’s racked up more than 2 million subscribers on the video channel, as well as 11 million on Instagram. And it’s success she doesn't take lightly. “I’m aware of my privilege in having this platform, and [it’s important] to set an example for the next generation,” she explains. “I try to spread positivity as much as I can.” With degrees in chemistry and biology on top of her preternatural comedic chops, which she flexes as a writer, editor, actor, and director on her social platforms, Stocking is a force all her own. And if she's really playing by the Kardashian West playbook? Next stop: world domination.
