Kylie Jenner, Sofia Richie, and Fashion’s Love Affair With Snakes
A photo posted by Kylie (@kyliejenner) on Dec 5, 2016 at 8:36am PST
Kylie Jenner’s new merchandise site KylieJennerShop.com will include shirts with sexy photos of the reality star screen-printed on them, trucker hats with her Lip Kit logo, and “Kylie” print lace underwear when it launches on Dec. 10. The 19-year-old is selling just about something for everyone — even snake lovers.
As she recently revealed on Instagram, one item set to hit the store is a Kylie Jenner-themed 2017 calendar shot by Terry Richardson. The beauty mogul is featured in a number of racy shots — one in which a boa constrictor is wrapped around her scantily clad body.
Although this might seem like an unconventional spread for a calendar, styling celebrities and models with reptiles during photo shoots is actually a pretty popular trend. Sofia Richie, a model and young socialite (who also happens to be Lionel Richie’s daughter and Justin Bieber’s ex-girlfriend), was also recently featured in a pink two-piece set with a large python wrapped around her arms for the cover of Complex magazine’s December 2016/January 2017 Issue.
The 18-year-old was clearly pleased with the cover, as she tweeted, “Next time anyone calls me a snake it will be considered a compliment in my eyes. Thank you so much Complex, this is truly amazing.”
The snake trend isn’t exclusive to teens or social media stars. Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence posed with a huge Colombian red-tailed boa constrictor for Vanity Fair’s March 2015 Hollywood issue.
A photo posted by Vanity Fair (@vanityfair) on Feb 5, 2015 at 12:20pm PST
The 26-year-old Oscar winner revealed that she was uncomfortable during the shoot when the boa constrictor started getting a little too close to her neck, according to Vanity Fair. The stunning portrait, which was shot by famed photographer Patrick Demarchelier, paid homage to Richard Avedon’s 1981 Vogue portrait of German actress Nastassja Kinski and a serpent — one of the first photographs to experiment with a model and a reptile.
A limited-edition print of Avedon’s famous photograph sold for $76,975 in 2009 at Christie’s auction house in London.
Not only did the highest-paid actress in the world brave a shoot with a snake, but one of the top earners in the music industry also doubled the danger for British GQ. Pop star Rihanna teamed up with renowned English artist Damien Hirst and two pythons — one measuring four feet long and the other six feet — for a Medusa-inspired shoot to celebrate the magazine’s 25th anniversary in 2013.
At the time of the release, Rihanna uploaded the cover to Instagram with the caption, “Medusa head on me like I’m ‘luminati!!!! She. x Damian Hirst #GQ#25thAnniversary#COVER.”
The singer also posted a racy image from the shoot in which she described her experience working with the reptiles.
A photo posted by badgalriri (@badgalriri) on Oct 25, 2013 at 1:05pm PDT
“I love playing with dominant animals! These 2 were double the trouble, but they’re superstars!!! #snakez#GQ #RiRi #88babies #25thanniversary,” she captioned the image.
It would be remiss to not mention one of the most iconic moments in awards show history — Britney Spears’s 2001 VMAs performance of “I’m a Slave 4 U” — when discussing the connection of snakes and entertainment.
The singer famously performed with a seven-foot albino Burmese python draped around her, inspiring thousands of re-creations. The performance was so big that years later people went through the trouble of tracking down the snake.
With the resurgence of this styling concept in recent years, it likely isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
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