It’s been quite a decade for the Kardashian-West clan, but it seems they’ll continue giving us head-scratching moments for the foreseeable future. On Christmas Day, Kanye blessed his fans with his latest gospel-fueled offering, Jesus Is Born, and, as Complex reports, this Christmas, he and wife Kim Kardashian West gifted their firstborn with a piece of pop legend memorabilia.
“For Christmas, Kanye and I gave North this jacket,” Kim said in an Instagram story captured by the Shade Room, where she showed off a military-inspired black jacket with white beading and a red armband. “And this was Michael Jackson’s jacket that he wore with Elizabeth Taylor,” she continued. “And North is a really big Michael Jackson fan and we knew she would love this.”
The jacket, which was won at auction and came complete with pictures of the “King of Pop” wearing it pinned inside, was “tacked up” to make it indefinitely wearable by the six-year-old North (who is reportedly also the owner of several custom jackets by Balmain—because keeping up with the Kardashians will cost you).
“[S]he can have this for her whole life,” Kim concluded, adding, “and she is so grateful and so happy.”
Admittedly, when I was age six (through about age 14, actually), a Michael Jackson jacket was a highly coveted item; so much so that knock-offs were high on the Christmas lists of my peers. That said, I didn’t grow up in the era of Leaving Neverland, the explosive 2019 HBO documentary in which two of Jackson’s alleged victims detailed years of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of the late music icon.
While it is certainly a parent’s prerogative whether or not they feel comfortable with their child idolizing Jackson at this point, it’s fair to say that purchasing a piece of his clothing for your six-year-old child is a statement in and of itself. That the purchase was made in part by Kanye West, whose seemingly contrarian choices have raised more than a few eyebrows in recent years, is almost unsurprising, though many may question its appropriateness, given the decades of allegations against Jackson. (After all, is this an item North was even aware existed, let alone requested?)
That said, we civilians can’t really relate to celebrity culture—and many of us have given up trying to understand the workings of Kim and Kanye’s minds altogether. What we do know is if this is what their child is getting at age 6, her Sweet Sixteen will be beyond our wildest imaginings.