If you would like to see what dedication to an aesthetic looks like, please turn your attention to Kim Kardashian’s meticulously curated Instagram grid. Kim is so dedicated to her carefully cultivated aesthetic, in fact, that she will alter facts of reality to preserve it, when necessary.
Case in point: Kim’s recent (and *very* viral) post in which she went Instagram Official with Pete Davidson. You know, this one:
If you are reading these words, then you are clearly a person with access to the internet, so we assume you’ve already seen the post, but did you notice the very obvious Photoshop in the second picture in the gallery (the one with Kim and Pete sitting on the floor together while he leans back and looks up at her)? You know, *this* one:
Via Instagram
Did you spot the ’shop? We’ll give you a second to review the picture in Sherlock mode.
Give up? It’s the carpet. The ENTIRE. CARPET. Kim’s cross-platform followers quickly noticed the edit because Kim also shared the snap in a (now-deleted) tweet, and in that version, the carpet clearly has a prominent, blocky spiral pattern. On Instagram, the same carpet is a solid cream colour, leading many fans to speculate that Kim made the edit so the IG version would fit her established aesthetic.
This isn’t a bad theory, considering Kim has gone very much on the record about the work that goes into maintaining her IG aesthetic in the past.
“My Instagram started to get really messy,” she explained in a 2018 interview with Marie Claire. “So I have the help of someone, a friend of mine who helps me filter everything and pick the colours, but it really is a full-time job.”
On Twitter, reactions to the Photoshopped flooring ranged from genuine confusion to joyous amusement to defensive stan anger that anyone even cares/is talking about the edit:
Someone please investigate; I need answers!! How does the repost have a wider picture w/ more of Pete’s legs, and how did the carpet change? Did they pose for this twice? What’s the story here? Why are people not talking about this? I feel like I’m going insane! @ChicksInTheOff pic.twitter.com/T3jPWkQqKz
— cass (@cassidy_eckert) March 12, 2022
Did Kim K change the carpet in that picture so it wouldn’t look like a cheap hotel or???
— whoooo am i (@allherdanger) March 11, 2022
kim k photoshopped the carpet she was on 😭
— The Quad Father (@kiingdrea) March 13, 2022
Omg who cares if Kim K changed the carpet?!?!! Leave her alone 🥴😭
— sk.💋 (@skilian_) March 13, 2022
Using Photoshop to create an unrealistic view of the colour palette of your own universe is at least better than using it to perpetuate potentially problematic beauty standards, right?
Via Cosmopolitan US.