Culture & Style
Kim Kardashian Channels Elizabeth Taylor in over 250 Carats of Diamonds on Balenciaga Runway
By Jane Asher, June 9, 2025
Kardashian once again emulates the icon’s style through fashion and natural diamond jewelry.
Courtesy of Balenciaga
Kim Kardashian arrived at Paris Fashion Week ready to model for one of her favorite fashion houses, Balenciaga. After a decade as the heritage brand’s creative director, Demna presented his final show for the label, and he went out with a sparkle. He enlisted celebrity jeweler Lorraine Schwartz to create 11 custom high jewelry looks for the runway.
Meet the Author
- Jane Asher is a social media manager with a passion for pop culture.
- She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English from Washington University in St. Louis.
- As a journalist, her work has been featured in publications such as InStyle Magazine, Stylecaster, Martha Stewart Weddings and more
Lorraine Schwartz x Balenciaga
Schwartz created the stunning high jewelry pieces using more than 1,000 carats of white diamonds, Colombian emeralds, Padparadsha sapphires, pink diamonds and canary yellow diamonds. Kardashian’s look, however, featured a pair of invaluable earrings from Elizabeth Taylor’s personal collection. The earrings, in a girandole style, were a favorite of Taylor’s and were worn to many red carpets and Hollywood events. They were a gift from her third husband, Mike Todd, in 1957, the same year he gave her one of her many massive engagement rings.
Kim Kardashian Wears the Mike Todd Earrings
Schwartz, who called Taylor a friend before she passed in 2011, purchased the Mike Todd earrings at Christie’s auction house in December 2011 for $374,500. According to a press release, Schwartz chose to add them to her own personal collection “in honor of her inspiring and meaningful friendship with Elizabeth.”
The girandole, or chandelier, earrings feature three round-cut diamond drop pendants suspended from an openwork plaque of additional round-cut diamonds shaped into flowers and bows, all hanging from a round-cut diamond flower stud mounted in platinum.
The earrings were a favorite of Taylor’s, and she was seen wearing them long after Mike Todd’s death in 1958, just a year after he gifted them to her. She wore them in the ads for her White Diamonds perfume, at the Golden Globes in 1957, and at the Academy Awards in 1992.
Kim Kardashian Honors Elizabeth Taylor
The full look was “an ode to Elizabeth Taylor,” according to Balenciaga, with Kardashian walking in a dress inspired by Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. She paired it with the earrings and two custom-made, natural diamond necklaces by Shwartz, weighing a total of 250 carats.
Kardashian is a self-proclaimed “huge Elizabeth Taylor nerd,” and bona fide superfan. The reality star conducted Taylor’s final interview in 2011 for Harper’s Bazaar before the actress’s death and served as an executive producer for a three-part BBC documentary series about the Hollywood legend.
This isn’t the first time Elizabeth Taylor has influenced Kim Kardashian’s style. She has staged several at-home photoshoots emulating some of Taylor’s famous looks. At her family’s annual Christmas party in 2023, Kardashian wore a baby blue gown with a collection of diamond necklaces, including a pear-shaped pendant reminiscent of the Taylor-Burton Diamond. The look was a clear callback to Taylor’s ensemble at the 1970 Oscars: A baby blue gown paired with the iconic diamond.
In 2011, the SKIMS founder purchased three jade and diamond bangles by Lorraine Schwartz during the Elizabeth Taylor auction at Christie’s in New York. A close friend of the jewelry designer, Kardashian could have purchased the pieces directly from Schwartz but instead, she chose to bid at auction, shelling out $64,900, well above the estimated price of $8,000, for the authentic bracelets. “She loved those bangles for a long time,” Schwartz told Forbes at the time. “She bought them because they’re Elizabeth’s.”
