Fashion brands are known for putting the campy and non-practical on sale: Balenciaga’s $2,000 Ikea bag, Margiela’s distressed sneakers, and Thom Browne’s dog-shaped bag. Nothing is ever too far out there. However, the internet was in pure shock after Kim Kardashian had completely reimagined the thong.
On October 14th, 2025, Kim’s shapewear brand SKIMS released a faux pubic hair thong dubbed the Ultimate Bush. The underwear comes in a mix of textures and twelve different shades for a range of skin tones. The launch caused major uproar online. On a Reddit post, users claimed, “This is some April Fools level sh-t”. Another user said, “This hurts my brain a little on who this is for.” Despite this response, the underwear, which retails at $32 a piece, sold out swiftly following its release.
The brand was founded back in 2019 with a mission to make the world of shapewear more inclusive. It offers a variety of sizes and colors for bras, bodysuits, and loungewear. However, Kim received backlash before the brand even launched because people claimed the original name, Kimono, was cultural appropriation. Despite this, they’ve already had huge collaborations, including with Swarovski and Team USA, but nothing has been as explosive as this most recent launch.
“It was just a fun, silly idea,” Kardashian told the outlet during a red carpet interview. “But you know a lot of other people have done it, like [John] Galliano.” During a 2024 Maison Margiela haute couture runway show, the seasoned British fashion designer adorned his models with merkins, an artificial pubic wig, under sheer dresses. According to the Guardian, more fashion brands have also laid things bare. “American Apparel made headlines when it displayed underwear-clad mannequins with protruding pubic wigs. ‘We created it to invite passer-bys to explore the idea of what is ‘sexy’ and consider their comfort with the natural female form,” said a spokesperson for the company at the time.” Runways and artistic expression are one thing, but many are questioning the practicality of this for regular people.
This product debuts at a particular time when influencer and ragebait marketing are at their height. The internet, in general, is run by shock factor. It influences what we watch and respond to on apps like TikTok and Twitter on a regular basis. It’s no wonder influencers and celebrities like Kim Kardashian want to weaponize this increase in engagement and sales.
There’s a psychology behind this type of marketing that drives people to purchase the impractical. It has everything to do with cultural and social conformity. There’s a phenomenon called the halo effect, where people feel obligated to tune into everything their favorite influencer creates. As human beings, we are social creatures that want to belong to a “pack”. So when we deem an influencer to be a part of that pack, we are culturally programmed to care even if they have no clue who we are. Especially regarding celebrities like the Kardashians, people look to influencers for guidance on social expectations. That’s in part why this family has had such a massive influence on beauty standards. People feel the need to conform to popular trends, so if Kim Kardashian has a slim waist and a hairy thong, people will jump on the bandwagon.
There’s a long history behind the pubic thong or merkin. 1450 was reportedly the first year the word “malkin” appeared. In the 15th century, pubic hair was a symbol of health and nobility. Sex workers with sexually transmitted diseases would wear merkins to conceal scarring and minimize the spread.
In the centuries that followed, the merkin was used for a wide variety of reasons. They were used by troop actors to cover their pubic region for modesty. In modern entertainment, actors use merkins as well, a famous example being the period drama, Bridgerton. The drag queen Jackie Cox had a hand in popularizing the merkin on the show RuPaul’s Drag Race, where she made a mock commercial for the very thing Kim Kardashian is selling.
But many are unfamiliar with this history. It’s tie to sex work and the entertainment industry, and its intermingling with drag. While the adoption of the merkin may not be an incredibly big deal, it does accumulate on a mountain of beauty trends Kim has been credited for unjustifiably. It sparks a larger conversation around sensationalism and beauty as a whole.
Our knee-jerk frustration surrounding Kim Kardashian’s influence has everything to do with class and racial dynamics. According to the author of White Negroes, Lauren Jackson, Kim has long partaken in a sort of “metachrosis” or the power of some animals to change color. “Kim’s distance from whiteness, however relative, made her a person of interest and revulsion — that is, a desirable person,” she writes. “Kim’s particular fame derives from a cherished place in the American racial imagination that, combined with wealth, prevents contact with the deathly effects of brownness in this country, while reaping the exoticism of not-quite-whiteness.” Kim and her sisters have long been able to adopt the aesthetics of others while receiving none of the marginalization. She sported Fulani braids and the tan to match, all while taking advantage of her social hierarchy. She doesn’t have to face the reality of being black but can reap its exoticism.
The history of the merkin is tied to a similar dynamic when you examine it further. There was a stint in history where the merkin was no longer desired outside of entertainment purposes. Pubic hair was no longer a sign of health but a show of barbarism. These beauty standards shifted in the early 1900s largely due to a systematic move to make upper to middle-class white women more desirable. Hair removal ads became incessant, especially as fashion trends shifted and more of the body was exposed. Soon, there would be no freedom in this choice but a necessity to conform.
Conformity is Kim’s brand. She’s influenced an entire generation’s idea of beauty for better or worse, and her shapewear brand is yet another avenue to pursue it. That’s why she can influence enough people to buy a pubic hair thong that it goes out of stock. If anything, this is the natural trajectory of her career. She is known for making the once undesirable desirable, but if you notice, these trends never last too long. I regret to inform you that the bush is not coming back into style a la the 15th century. Kim isn’t here to free the bush; in her own words, it’s a joke. That’s because it’s never been a movement; it’s a marketing strategy.
