Well we think it's safe to say that last week's news was mainly dominated by Kim Kardashian's bare bottom. After pictures of Kim posing for New York magazine Paper were released showing her full frontal naked and with her famous assets oiled up, the internet couldn't get enough of them. Everyone seemed to have an opinion, and parodies of the images went viral. Now Paper's Editorial Director Mickey Boardman has spoken to Grazia and revealed what really happened on the day of the shoot and confirmed that Kim's much talked about bottom is all her own… Wow.
**Grazia Daily: What was the inspiration behind the shoot? **
MB: Chief Creative Officer, Drew Elliott returned to Paper after a 1.5 year hiatus and began giving us a makeover and redesign. While discussing fantasy covers, Kim Kardashian’s name came up. Drew said, 'If we put Kim Kardashian on the cover it will ‘break the internet!’ We thought it was a great idea for an issue and put together a whole list of talents who have huge web and social media presence.
Grazia Daily: Did Kim come up with the concept or was it the photographer Jean-Paul Goude?
MB: We knew we wanted Jean Paul Goude because he’s a genius and an old friend. He’d just done a portrait of himself with Azzedine Alaia for our September issue and he loved the idea of shooting Kim K. It was Jean-Paul who thought up the idea of recreating his legendary champagne photo. Kim loved the idea. She was really game for anything and Jean-Paul and Kim just clicked incredibly.
**Grazia Daily: What do you hope to achieve with this cover? **
MB: We had two goals. Since the theme of the issue was to 'break the internet' we wanted to create hysteria on line. We’re launching the rest of the content from the issue on 19 November including lots of incredible stuff from internet superstars like Cameron Dallas, Snoop Dogg, Aubrey Plaza, Tim & Eric, King Bach, Tyler Oakley and more. Another goal was to create incredibly iconic images. Having Jean-Paul, one of the greatest photographers alive today and Kim, the world’s most famous woman together was a dream come true. Really, always our main goal is to do something incredible that we’re proud of. We’re overwhelmingly proud of these images and thrilled to have played a part in creating them. The goal wasn’t specifically to shock but that’s what ended up happening and the exposure for Paper has been outrageous.
Grazia Daily: What was Kim like on the shoot?
MB: We shot in a studio on the outskirts of Paris. It was the day after the Balmain show. Dozens of fans and paparazzi somehow found out where she was going and were waiting outside the studio. We used Jean-Paul’s hair person and a stylist/seamstress to create the dress on set. Kim was the nicest and most professional cover subject we’ve ever worked with.
Grazia Daily: Is that really Kim's bottom?
MB: The body is Kim’s body. Yes the image is retouched as all photos on the covers of magazines are retouched and if you know Jean-Paul’s work you know he creates magic like the splash of the champagne over the head with pasting images together. As for the butt we didn’t pad it or make it bigger. It’s all her.
**Grazia Daily: How many people were involved? **
MB: There were about 15 people there. Everyone was told that we had to be sure not to let anyone see the images until they were released. We all knew that we had to be careful about how the images came out online.
See Kim's impressive bumvolution in the gallery below...