There are many reasons you might remember Kim Kardashian’s December 2007 Playboy shoot. The cascade of pearls she wore with nothing else, her sultry stare at the camera, her world-renowned derriere in full view. And of course, the cheerleading from her mother, Kris Jenner, that launched a million memes: “Kim, you’re doing amazing sweetie.”
Shot just a few months after she was the victim of a sex-tape leak that was released without her consent, and made her a household name, Kardashian’s Playboy shoot might seem like a public reclaiming of her nude image. But a look back at the historical records (also known as episode four of the first season of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”) shows how that wasn’t exactly the case. Instead, it was a reluctant but savvy career move.
Kardashian’s Playboy shoot “launched her career,” according to British Vogue. While we’re not sure we can take quite that much credit, it is true that it was one in a series of decisions at the start of her celebrity that catapulted her into global fame and laid the groundwork for her to launch her multibillion-dollar businesses.
Kim Kardashian first entered the public eye as Paris Hilton’s stylist, dipping her toes into reality television in bit parts on Hilton and Nicole Richie’s show, “The Simple Life.” But in March 2007, Kardashian’s profile skyrocketed when a sex tape made years before of her and then-boyfriend Ray J leaked to the public. The leak was devastating for Kardashian.
“That is something that I have to live with for the rest of my life. That is something that’s, like, being held over my head,” she told Andy Cohen during a 2021 “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” reunion. “I try not to have any regrets, but it’s probably the one thing that I wish didn’t exist, and if I could erase any of the stupid things that I’ve done in life, that’s probably it. And it’s more so from being a mom than anything.”
But Jenner, Kardashian’s mother and manager (and the woman who coined the term “momager”) spun what was a violation of her daughter’s privacy into a bit of vengeance once the family’s reality show launched in October 2007. The fourth episode of that premiere season opens with a call between Jenner and a Playboy representative offering Kardashian the magazine’s December 2007 cover. It takes some convincing to get Kim on board.
“Ever since the sex-tape scandal, I have to be really careful at how I’m perceived,” Kardashian says on the show. “People are going to say ‘Oh, you know, all she’s good for is taking her clothes off.’”
At first, Kardashian agreed to shoot for Playboy only if she remained fully clothed. She posed for photographers Hype Williams and Stephen Wayda in the red leotard that would make the cover photo, but Playboy’s founder wasn’t satisfied. After a meeting at the Playboy mansion, Kardashian agreed to shoot more photos, this time with fewer clothes.
A forever meme is born when Kardashian, draped in pearls and reclining on her knees, sees her mother holding a digital camera in the corner. As Jenner is shooting behind the scenes photos of Kardashian, and offering encouragement in hopes of making her daughter more comfortable, you hear those fateful words: “Kim, you’re doing amazing, sweetie!”
After the shoot, Kardashian says she’s glad she decided to strip down—which she’s waffled on over the years. In 2017, she described the shoot as “an honor,” which was different from what she said in 2014. At that point, Kardashian said she was sorry she did Playboy, saying her mother convinced her to do it.
“They might never ask you again. Our show isn’t on the air yet,” Kardashian remembers Jenner telling her, according to Harper’s Bazaar. “No one knows who you are. Do it and you’ll have these beautiful pictures to look at when you’re my age.”
Everyone certainly knows who Kim Kardashian is post-Playboy, though perhaps her mega-popular reality show and momager have a bit more to do with that.
Yet, publicizing the Playboy shoot on her family’s reality show is what made the shoot so well-known, according to MJ Corey, creator of the popular social media account @Kardashian_Kolloquium and author of Dekonstructing the Kardashians, an upcoming book about the famous family.
“I’d say the episode about the shoot did more for her than the shoot itself, which reflects both Kim’s savvy and that of the Playboy brand in the early aughts, when both brands made sure to interact with the rising medium of reality TV,” Corey told Playboy via email, saying the medium grew Kardashian’s cultural capital.
The show did just that. “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” was a quick hit, earning a renewal just one month after its release. Though it premiered to an audience of just 898,000 people, the show went on to set viewership records for E!, becoming the network’s most-watched telecast ever in 2010. After a 20-season run, the show came to an end in 2021—only for the family to launch a new Hulu show, “The Kardashians.”
The family’s reality television turn transformed not just into a lasting show, but cemented them as a cultural force. Business of Fashion says Kardashian “pivoted [internet] ubiquity into a diversified business empire,” calling her “a multi-hyphenate mogul, [who leveraged] a massive digital following to build a business empire valued in the billions.” She lands at no. 25 on Forbes’ “America’s Richest Self-Made Women” list, with a reported net-worth of $1.9 billion. Forbes says she “parlayed reality TV stardom into a ten-figure fortune,” largely thanks to Skims, her shapewear business. And that doesn’t even count the rest of her family’s business acumen, which includes fashion, cosmetics, and wellness brands.
While Kardashian was clear in those early episodes of the show that she wanted to be known for more than just taking off her clothes — mission accomplished — she hasn’t stopped capitalizing off her sexuality. She “broke the internet” in 2014 with her nude photoshoot in Paper. Her most successful business, Skims, sells women’s shapewear, often using Kardashian’s body as the goal. She and her sisters have deeply contributed to changing beauty standards for women, both for better and for worse.
“I do think people take issue with Kim for finding a way to monetize her sexuality and have total, literal ownership over it,” Corey said, something evident in the enduring backlash over Kardashian’s fame and success.
Kardashian has addressed that backlash directly, particularly after sharing a nude selfie that caused uproar online.
“I am empowered by my body. I am empowered by my sexuality. I am empowered by feeling comfortable in my skin. I am empowered by showing the world my flaws and not being afraid of what anyone is going to say about me,” she wrote in a now-deleted post from her website in 2016, in response to the outrage over showing her body. “I am a mother. I am a wife, a sister, a daughter, an entrepreneur and I am allowed to be sexy.”
Kim hasn’t stopped being sexy, she hasn’t stopped making money, and she hasn’t faded from the public eye. She also hasn’t faded from Playboy’s memory. Corey called Kardashian and Playboy somewhat similar in that they both built success via a blend of the low- and high-brow.
And in 2023, Kardashian seemed to make reference to her Playboy ties, showing up to the Met Gala wearing a nude corset and cascading pearls covering her breasts—a look incredibly similar to her 2007 Playboy shoot.
To that, we have just one thing to say: “Kim, you’re doing amazing, sweetie!”
