Kim Kardashian just landed one of the few coveted magazine covers she’s never appeared on, posing for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition.
The reality star joins Ciara, Maye Musk, and plus-size model Yumi Nu for the 2022 issue. For her cover shot, Kardashian was photographed by Greg Swales in the Dominican Republic wearing a flesh-tone suit from her own Skims swim line, paired with a matching pair of mesh opera gloves. While the choice of accessory may seem unusual, pairing her swimwear with gloves has actually become one of Kardashian’s signature styling moves in recent months.
Inside the magazine, the Selfish author also penned a letter to her younger self about the difficulties she will face on her rise to fame, as well as figuring out what really matters. “It’s easy to say to just ignore the criticism, but another thing you’ll learn is that at some point it will click in your head that it’s not about you anymore. It’s about family. It’s about helping other people,” she wrote. “For years you’ll be putting yourself out there…But you’re going to become a more private person and you’re going to come to realize that the way to get your story out there—the actual narrative, the truth—isn’t by engaging but by doing.” She added, “But know this. When you get here, to May 2022, you’re not going to be content. You’re still going to be looking for that next it…And when you find it, you’re going to do it—we’re going to do it—like we always do: to the fullest.”
Kardashian also told the magazine that she “vividly” remembers seeing Tyra Banks on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a young woman and how when she saw “women with curves, I remember thinking that was just so cool. But I still thought you had to be a professional model and a runway model.” So she was shocked when she was asked to become a cover girl herself, explaining, “It was always really young girls. I don’t want to date myself or sound old, but in my 40s? That’s crazy! I never thought in a million years that I would be shooting one myself.”
Fellow cover star, Nu also expressed her surprise over “the biggest year of [her] modeling career thus far,” adding in a letter accompanying her photo spread that, “Even here in the U.S., where a lot of the fashion industry has become more inclusive toward people with bodies like mine in the last few years, some people—for example, designers at certain high-fashion houses and dumb, angry guys on the internet, among others—just haven’t quite figured out yet that people who look like me belong everywhere everyone else does. But to them I say: We’ll wait. We’re here, and we’re not going away.”
In an essay by Musk’s daughter Tosca Musk, she wrote of her mother’s appearance on the magazine’s cover at age 74, “My whole life, I’ve seen my mom do everything. As a result I think I’ll always expect her to be able to do everything. Sometimes I wonder whether it’s time I start limiting those expectations, as she gets older. But then I look at her again, still unstoppable, and I think, Not yet.”
Ciara’s husband Russell Wilson likewise enthused about his wife being a force of nature. “That’s what my wife does,” the NFL star wrote. “She inspires people because she connects with them. She tilts rooms when she walks into them; it really seems like all the furniture just slides her way. Maybe it’s an interaction with a fan, where she’ll suggest they take a selfie together before the fan can even ask. Or it might be a far more serious situation. I remember our first visit to Seattle Children’s Hospital, when a mother of a boy who was ill held on to her for a good five minutes without letting go. That’s the kind of woman Ciara is—a ray of light.”
SI Swimsuit editor-in-chief MJ Day said in a statement announcing this year’s covers, “The journey we’ve been on — to break out of the mold the world put us in — may sound familiar. It’s certainly familiar to the women we’ve chosen to be our cover models: Maye, Ciara, Yumi, Kim. At 74, Maye continues to work every day to inspire those around her. Ciara has seen enormous success as a performer while simultaneously focusing on her passion for philanthropy and service. In her first year of being in the spotlight, Yumi is coming into who she is and taking on the responsibility of what she stands for. And of course, Kim, no stranger to the world’s judgment, continues to live proudly, authentically and unapologetically through the noise.” She added, “We all deserve the chance to evolve. So in this issue, we encourage readers to see these models as we see them: multifaceted, multitalented—and sexy while they’re at it. The world may label them one way, but we want to focus our lens on all the ways they see themselves and how they own who they are.”
The post Kim Kardashian Pairs Her Bikini with Opera Gloves for 2022 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition appeared first on Vanity Fair.
