Why Do Super Rich Celebrity Couples Keep Posing In Old School Middle-Class Kitchens?

If you don’t follow Kim Kardashian on Instagram, you might have missed her uploading a throwback picture to a controversial shoot she posed for with husband Kanye West in 2017, taken at music producer Rick Rubin's Shangri La Malibu recording studio.

She received backlash at the time, with people saying she was essentially participating in poor people cosplay, thus mocking those who really lived in similar environments.

Journalist Alicia Brunker points out that newlyweds Justin and Hailey Bieber seemed to mirror the theme in a Vogue Magazine photo shoot by the iconic photographer Annie Leibovitz this year, where they hung out in a very bare, modest 60s-style kitchen.

So why do super rich celebrities keep donning a middle-class aesthetic for photo shoots? One reason could be that the photographer, stylist and creative team want to show the couple in a completely new setting. The issue with celebrities such as Kim Kardashian is that they are photographed so often that to really make a splash with a new set of images, there has to be something radically different about them.

This is why magazines often try dramatic creative angles when photographing high-profile celebrities – they remove all their makeup, dye their hair or fly them out to a location they aren’t usually seen in, so they can sell the story with an ‘as you’ve never seen them before’ line to entice readers.

But posing as a poorer couple for a photo shoot can be just as unsettling as an over the top, lavish display of wealth. Looking at images of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt from a 2005 W Magazine spread, we can see the same themes used by Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in 2017.

The images were shot by Steven Klein before Jolie and Pitt had got together, and show the pair playing house Mr and Mrs Smith style with some children posing as theirs, in a house very different to the luxury abodes they actually lived in.

They pray while holding hands at the table, Jolie has her hair blowdried and curled, and wears heavy eye makeup, and Brad holds a beer while wearing a checked shirt hanging open.

READ MORE: Angelina Jolie's Best Ever Outfits

There’s nothing wrong with inventive shoot locations and pushing the boundaries of fashion and interior styling, but fetishizing a lower-income family’s lifestyle for the gram? Not so cute.