Kim Kardashian Trademarks 'Kimono'

Kim Kardashian has trademarked the name "Kimono" for her new clothing brand and people in Japan have two main objections: 1. Kimonos have been part of their culture since many centuries before the rise of the Kardashians. 2. The new underwear line looks nothing like their traditional robes. Kardashian revealed the new shapewear line in an Instagram post and there was an immediate backlash, with people calling the celebrity a "culture vulture," the Los Angeles Times reports. Kardashian, who has also filed trademarks for "Kimono Body," "Kimono Intimates," and "Kimono World," says the new line "celebrates and enhances the shape and curves of women."

"I would always cut up my shapewear to make my own styles, and there have also been so many times I couldn’t find a ... color that blended with my skin tone so we needed a solution for all of this," Kardashian wrote on Instagram. Japanese people accused her of disrespecting the tradional garment. "We wear kimonos to celebrate health, growth of children, engagements, marriages, graduations, at funerals. It's celebratory wear and passed on in families," Japanese woman Yuka Ohishi tells the BBC. The "shapewear doesn't even resemble a kimono—she just chose a word that has Kim in it—there's no respect to what the garment actually means in our culture." (More Kim Kardashian stories.)