This just in: Kim Kardashian has officially done it. She's made underwear...hairy.
The newest SKIMS drop is a teeny-tiny string thong made of sheer mesh, hand-tufted with a mix of curly and straight faux pubic hair. It comes in 12 shades, so, as team SKIMS puts it, "your carpet can be whatever color you want it to be."
Kim has always been good at knowing what we want—or, more accurately, knowing what we didn't know we wanted until she made it look hot and broke the internet. First, it was shapewear that didn't feel like medieval torture, then nipple bras, and now, pubic hair panties. In a nutshell: It's a wearable merkin for the 21st century.
If you're not familiar with merkins (no shame, you probably didn't have to Google Pubic Wigs at work today), they date back to the 1400s. Sex workers wore them to prevent or hide the contraction of disease. Fast forward six centuries, and now they're being sold by a billionaire beauty and fashion mogul atop three tiny pieces of elastic. History is cyclical like that.
It's peak Kim: a little absurd and completely conversation-bait. But I can't say that we didn't have it coming. Because what's really left to innovate in underwear? We've done seamless. We've done sculpting. We've played with crystals, and we've even done edible. The only frontier left? Follicles.
When I first saw the campaign—alongside the rest of team MC—I laughed, literally out loud. We all stared at each other with mouths open, not so much in shock (it is Kim, after all) but in curiosity. And then I thought, wait, could there be something here?
Beneath the humor, this drop does something interesting: it takes something we've been told forever to hide and brings it to the forefront of every news outlet, sparking a conversation across the internet. The Instagram post has racked up thousands of views, and there's already a dedicated Reddit page—albeit with a not-so-amusing title. Kim has built an empire around the female body—contouring it, celebrating it, and, for better or for worse, shaping literal body surgery trends. This feels like a natural extension of that influence.
Pubic hair, that forever subject of societal dissonance, was the one area she hadn't touched yet. And honestly? It tracks. We've had naked dresses, adorned nipple covers meant to be accessories, and visible thongs. This feels like the next step. The pubic region—so long airbrushed, waxed, and virtually erased—is suddenly beauty and fashion's next aesthetic playground.
The bush renaissance has been quietly bubbling for the past year. Vogue published an excerpt titled "The Bush is Back in 2025," Maison Margiela dressed models in sheer S/S '24 looks with couture human hair pubes, and TikTok blew up this summer with #FullBushinaBikini content. Now with SKIMS in on the fun, could it finally push this fringe conversation fully mainstream?
The "Ultimate Bush" in Sienna Black Curly and Cocoa Ginger Curly.
Blonde, curly bush? Why not. Fuzzy jet-black? A classic. A sleek, bright red? Kim would.
Of course, you could argue this is peak internet absurdity—capitalism's most ridiculous form, where even fake hair for our genitals gets monetized. But if the internet has taught us anything, it's that the line between parody and product launch no longer exists, and Kim Kardashian has built an empire living squarely in that blur. (I mean, it's been two hours and pretty much every colorway and size is sold out.)
When I brought it up to the Marie Claire Beauty Team, the reactions were, honestly, pretty reasonable for a fake-bush panty drop.
"I already see people in the comments attempting to be outraged by this," says Senior Beauty Writer Danielle Jackson. "And while it does sound a little ridiculous, I also think it's kind of fine...? It could be nice for people who can't grow hair due to alopecia, chemo, et cetera. It's also not the worst thing Kim has ever done, but that's just my two cents."
Beauty Director Hannah Baxter was also equally unbothered. "Pubic hair feels less and less divisive as the years go by—genuinely, do whatever the F you want with your body hair, my friends," she tells me. "But this feels like an obvious play for controversy. Still, Kim knows how to make a splash, and if a bush thong doesn't do it, I don't know what will."
And with that, Hannah asked the only question that may truly matter: "Genuinely, though, do you shampoo it or throw it in with your laundry?"
While SKIMS clarifies it's hand-wash only, one thing is certain: Kim remains unbothered, and every click to the site from this launch is a potential sale of the Ultimate Bush—or another product.
Somewhere, history may be gasping, but Kim's pockets are just getting fatter.
