10 Years Ago Today, Kim Kardashian Broke The Internet

A lot can happen in a decade. So much so that looking back, I barely remember the events of 2014. What is clear as day in my mind, though, is a pop culture moment that shifted the zeitgeist. I’m talking about Kim Kardashian and her glossy behind breaking the internet.

In the early 2010s, Kardashian was living a very different life. She was still married to Kanye West with a lone year-old daughter, North, and she was still yet to launch her beauty and shapewear lines. And though she was already a fashion force, she didn’t hold nearly as much influence as she does now, where a mere Instagram post can sell out a collection. That all changed on Nov. 12, 2014, when Paper magazine debuted its Winter 2014 issue cover featuring a bare-butt Kardashian.

The Kontroversial Kardashian Kover

The cover itself, shot by Jean-Paul Goude, was all sorts of original. Dressed in the vein of Old Hollywood glamour, Kardashian’s neck was fully buried under strands of pearls, which she paired with a matching set of pearl earrings, and her hair was styled in an artistic and exaggerated top knot. Another retro glam detail? Her satin opera gloves, a favorite of actresses of yore.

Though there was a dress in the cover, Kardashian didn’t quite wear it. Instead, standing with her backside to the camera, the reality TV icon stripped down to absolutely nothing, holding the dress down below her very visible, very naked, and very shiny booty. The text on the photo read, “BREAK THE INTERNET KIM KARDASHIAN.”

The writing proved to be eerily prophetic. Though she didn’t exactly “break” the internet, the cover took control of pop culture conversations and did make a massive impact on the World Wide Web. The day after the launch, Paper’s website traffic measured nearly 1% of the entire web browsing activity in the US and shaped it for years to come — and that doesn’t include shares, tweets, and retweets.

Though these days, Kardashian is used to her fashion choices turning into comedic fodder for the internet (see: her various Met Gala looks), the cover marked one of the first times she fueled endless memes. Even Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi spoofed the moment and photoshopped themselves onto a Christmas card.

Her Sister Recreated It, Sort Of

Years later, the cover still remains one of the most iconic pictures of the last decade. And no celeb has dared recreated her glossy, oil-laden booty-forward image — except for her sister Kendall Jenner.

Last year, also around the Paper cover’s anniversary, the 818 Tequila founder starred in Jacquemus’ holiday campaign. One photo looked strikingly similar to the OG Kardashian pic, in the sense that both were pics of their bare dewy behinds. Jenner’s, however, was more... festive. She wore a shearling crop bra on top and a string of Christmas lights around her buttocks.

No one knows how to break the internet quite like the KarJenners.