In the '90s, women idolized Jennifer Aniston's breezy girl-next-door style. Later came the rise of Gisele and Jennifer Lopez, when we all wanted waves in our hair and sexy, curvaceous figures. And in 2011, one expert says women are coveting the looks of perhaps the world's most famous reality star: Kim Kardashian.
Refinery 29 pointed us to an interview with legendary hair stylist Guido Palau, who told Beauty High that he finds most women want to imitate one certain celeb:
"Kim Kardashian is real. That's what girls look like today. It's a very huge, cultural part of what is going on, and the 'Real Housewives of Atlanta', it's a very big part of what we're seeing -- as important as Lady Gaga is to a 15-year-old....
Kim Kardashian is how loads of women want to look. It's a very important style statement, and that will go into my library of style and I will take that somewhere."
Palau knows a thing or two about legendary beauty -- he's styled supermodels all over the world, including doing all of the looks for Cindy, Linda and others in George Michael's famous "Freedom" videos. During September's Fashion Week, he sculpted the hair of the models at Alexander Wang into flowy Kim-esque waves.
And like it or not, Palau also says that Kim's exaggerated sexuality -- think wavy locks, doe eyes, almost cartoonish curves -- will be preserved as the ideal of our time.
It is something culturally in 20 years time that we're going to look back at and go, 'That's what it was like'. Beauty is a cultural statement but it really hits home in those periods we look back on: the 50s with Marilyn Monroe, the 70s with Farrah Fawcett, all of these major, iconic women."
It's not just by chance that that image of her hair is so in our psyche. Kim Kardashian and that type of girl will be that for now. That's what's going on, this played-out idea of beauty -- that's really beauty. So that's what I'm aware of, and try to bring into my world."
We turn to you. Is Kim the next Marilyn Monroe?
Read the full interview with Palau at Beauty High, then check out our slideshow of some of Kim's iconic looks (from her 72 days spent as a married woman) and cast your vote in our poll below:
72 Days of Kim K Fashion(CLONED)
