Paris Hilton is associated with many things – being an heiress, an entrepreneur, an activist and a Y2K fashion inspiration – but living on a budget is not often among them.
Affordability, however, is at the heart of Paris Hilton for Walmart, the namesake lifestyle brand she has developed in partnership with that big-box chain, where she recently introduced a line of handbags mostly priced under US$30 (approximately RM129).
“It’s definitely a full-circle moment from ‘What’s Walmart?’ in The Simple Life to having Walmart have walls of Paris Hilton product everywhere,” Hilton said, referring to the 2000s reality television series in which she and Nicole Richie, another scion of wealth, traded their cosmopolitan lifestyles for tastes of rural America.
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Since her partnership with Walmart, one of the country’s biggest retail chains, began last year, Hilton has put her name on ice cream makers, Santoku knife sets and baby clothing sold at the store.
Makeup and bedding are in the works, too, she said.
The 13 handbag styles she has designed for Walmart include a quilted iridescent pink tote for US$32 (RM137); a heart-shaped denim cross-body bag that says “Paris” in sparkly lettering for US$24 (RM103); and a bowling bag featuring a print of smiling Pomeranian dogs for US$25 (RM107).
She sees them as alternatives to the designer bags from brands like Prada and Chanel that she often carries, prices for which “have gotten really high”, she said, as the global luxury market has continued to grow.
Bags are a category in which Hilton, 43, feels she has a particular expertise. At the peak of her early 2000s fame, certain styles she wore to Los Angeles nightclubs and Hollywood events – the Fendi Spy, the Dior Saddle, the Chloé Paddington – became widely coveted.
“It was before influencers,” Hilton said. “I had no stylist and was putting the looks together on my own.” Prices rarely factored into her choice of accessories, she added. “Every designer was sending me bags, so I wasn’t paying attention.”
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Early 2000s fashion has lately had an outsize influence on young shoppers and stores that cater to them.
In the past few years, dresses and miniskirts that look like carbon copies of clothing Hilton wore 20 years ago have proliferated.
Her recollection of the role she played in setting that era’s trends was befitting of a person who has been putting herself in the spotlight since her teenage years.
“When I look back at Y2K fashion, the one person I think had the biggest impact on handbags was me,” Hilton said. – The New York Times
