Paris Hilton likely needs no introduction. Us elders remember her 21st birthday, hit song “Stars Are Blind,” and co-starring role on The Simple Life with her friend Nicole Richie; the youth know her as an EDM DJ, memoir author, and mother of two.
When we meet on a Tuesday evening in Greenpoint, Brooklyn to celebrate the launch of the new Motorola razr phone, I admit I'm old enough to recall something else about her: In 2005 she launched the OG Motorola Razr flip phone in a shade of pink so vivid that it's stuck with me my entire life (and maybe subconsciously inspired my hot pink stone in my engagement ring). “It's amazing to be here 20 years later, launching a new phone tonight,” she tells me in an awestruck purr. She's dressed perfectly to match the event—in the Versace Crystal Medusa ‘95 Mini Dress (which, as the name suggests, is a throw-back to a dress from the 1995 runway)—part vintage, part new.
“I have so many memories of my Razr. Taking selfies with my friends, using it like a fashion accessory—I would clip it on my low-rise jeans and show it off, it’d always have crystals on it. I also loved prank calling people on it or using it like a prop and walking through crowds pretending to be talking on it.” Apparently, it's the perfect way to deflect those pesky paps—sorry can't talk now, on a very important call!
It's a trick she's pulled in many iconic outfits, in fact—all of which are now archived in a “a storage unit the size of Costco,” Hilton says. “My mom kept certain pieces from her wardrobe for me, I thought that was so special, so I'm doing the same thing for [my daughter] London. She's going to have the most iconic wardrobe, tied to all of these memories and moments.” But it comes with one caveat: “Some of these pieces are just a little too short… but she'll definitely get to look at them!”
Something else she plans on passing on to her daughter is the importance of skincare. “My mom started teaching me at eight years old; the first lesson was to stay out of the sun. Then it was all about cleansers and eye creams, neck cream, and serum, this whole 20-step routine that I've always loved. I'm so grateful to my mom for teaching me that because I've been doing preventative skincare since I was eight, it's pretty epic.”
I get the signal from Hilton's team that our time is coming to an end—she's here to DJ after all, not just hang out with me—so I ask one final question: What's something she plans to leave in the 2000s? “My Tinkerbell haircut was very in back then but when I look at it now, I am like ‘it was just so short!’ I don't think I would ever do that again. I love a cute bob, but that was just something else.”
