Kim Kardashian Wore Elizabeth Taylor's Earrings in Paris Today

The well-known fan of golden-age Hollywood wore the jewels as part of an ensemble inspired by Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Elizabeth Taylor in a publicity shot from 1958's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with costumes by Helen Rose.

It’s no secret that fashion designers love classic films and often employ them as inspiration, and the latest example of this was revealed on a haute-couture runway Wednesday morning. Demna presented his final Balenciaga collection in Paris, and early on in the presentation, Kim Kardashian appeared on the runway, wearing a dress that takes its cue from a costume, worn by Elizabeth Taylor and designed by Helen Rose, from 1958’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Demna, the single-monikered designer who announced in March that he was departing Balenciaga to become the artistic director for Gucci, included several classic-film inspirations in his haute-couture swan song for the house founded by Cristobal Balenciaga in 1937. “The Golden Age of Hollywood, a perpetual obsession of mine, informs a study of Old Hollywood glamour,” Demna wrote in his show notes. “A black sequined ‘Diva’ gown inspired by Marilyn Monroe, a pink ‘Debutante’ princess dress in the world’s lightest technical organza. A draped dress cut with one seam.”

Of the look worn by Kardashian, he wrote: “My ode to Elizabeth Taylor is worn by Kim: a ‘mink’ coat made of embroidered feathers, worn over a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof silk slip. To complete this tribute, she wears Elizabeth Taylor’s most iconic personal diamond pendant earrings from Lorraine Schwartz’s private collection.”

Kim Kardashian in the slip dress designed by Demna for Balenciaga, inspired by Helen Rose's design for Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Kardashian is also wearing the diamond girandole earrings Mike Todd purchased for Taylor during their marriage.

Schwartz, the New York-based jewelry designer whose pricey gems are prominent during awards seasons on performers that include Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Blake Lively and Angelina Jolie, indeed purchased the famous earrings, which ranked high among Elizabeth Taylor’s favorites in her considerable jewelry collection, in 2011. Known casually as the Taylor Girandole earrings, the chandelier-style jewels are crafted of platinum and diamonds, and were a gift in 1957 from film producer Mike Todd, Taylor’s third husband and the 1957 Best Picture Oscar winner for 1956’s Around the World in 80 Days. Taylor wore the earrings often, including to the Golden Globe Awards in February 1958, roughly a month before Todd was killed in a plane crash. The earrings also make an appearance in one of the more famous ad campaigns for Taylor's White Diamonds fragrance.

From left: Mike Todd and Elizabeth Taylor at the 1957 Golden Globe Awards; a close-up look at the earrings from the 2011 Christie's auction.

At the famed Christie's Elizabeth Taylor auction in December 2011, Schwartz also purchased a fringe diamond bracelet that she had designed and sold to Taylor during their long friendship, and said at the time that she couldn't resist the earrings. “I had no intention of buying [them], but I literally felt Liz kicking me and saying, ‘Oh, just buy them.’ I knew the story she had told me about the earrings and the way she loved them. Next thing you know, I was bidding and I bought them. I am thrilled to have the jewels as a special remembrance of my dear friend Liz.”

Taylor is also seen wearing the earrings in a photo used as part of the star's White Diamonds fragrance campaign.

While Schwartz designed 11 custom high-jewelry looks, comprising more than 1,000 carats of diamonds, for Demna's show, it's a sure bet Kardashian was partly lured to walk the runway with the opportunity to wear Taylor's original earrings. Likewise a known fan of classic Hollywood, Kardashian made headlines when she wore Marilyn Monroe’s legendary “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” gown designed by Jean Louis to the 2022 Met Gala. Given the alleged damage that occurred when Kardashian wore the fragile vintage gown worn by Monroe in 1962, Taylor fans can rest assured that the silk slip gown seen on Wednesday morning was a Demna design and tribute to Helen Rose's design, and not the original.

A publicity still of Taylor in the now-famous slip.

In her autobiography, Just Make Them Beautiful, Rose wrote that the lace-trimmed slip in shell-pink satin was one of only three looks she designed for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but the design, coupled with the woman who wore it, made an undeniable impact: “Her figure was the best it had ever been ... she was quite a woman.” Demna's tribute, seen on a Paris runway 67 years after one of Taylor's most famous films, proves that the costume's significance endures, influencing fashion and high style.

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