Few people have evolved under the microscopic lens that is the public eye quite like Paris Hilton. We first met her in the early 2000s as a budding celebutante ever present at any given high-profile red carpet event or coveted nightclub opening. She was cool but bubbly, owned the party scene of the times, and unfailingly flaunted a pair of low-rise jeans, a trucker hat, or a midriff-baring top. When quoted, it was usually with a phrase that’s since become inseparable from the now-43-year-old mogul: “That’s hot.”
The original influencer cemented her mark on the enigmatic industry before it even had a name, and her brand only continues to evolve. With a fragrance line that’s generated over $2.5 billion and an impressive portfolio of fashion collaborations under her belt, today, it’s the cookware industry she’s putting her stamp on. Last year, the multihyphenate launched a collection of cooking utensils with Walmart following her Netflix reality series “Cooking With Paris.” Now, she’s announced a drinkware collection with Absolut.
“I've always loved to cook ever since I was a little girl,” a busy Hilton tells Coveteur over a faceless Zoom call mid-flight. “I started cooking a lot more recently, and just noticed that all of the cookware was just so boring and bland.” Hilton’s take on kitchen goods is anything but. Like many of the pieces in her best-selling cookware collection, the star’s new martini glasses and shaker are pink—and, in one case, glittery. You’re likely to find a matching hue poured into the entrepreneur’s personal martini glass as well; she's also created a signature Cosmopolitan cocktail with the brand. “[The perfect Cosmo is] definitely with Absolut and just [about] putting it in the ice for long enough, and shaking it in the right way,” she educates. “There’s an art to it.”
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While Hilton has been busy perfecting the craft of cocktail-making, she’s also found time to revisit an art that will thrill fans of her 2006 pop hit, "Stars Are Blind," and now has a new album, Infinite Icon, set to arrive September 6. Eighteen years after the launch of her debut album, the singer says the idea to return to the studio started with a New Year’s Eve performance with Sia and Miley Cyrus. On the flight home, Sia egged Hilton on toward releasing another album—and even offered to executive produce it.
“I love Sia so much,” Hilton says. “She is so brilliant, and it was just incredible recording and writing this album with her this year.” This time around, Hilton is fresh off promoting a recent New York Times best-selling memoir that bared all, and before that, a vulnerable documentary that premiered in 2020. This sense of a veil being lifted from someone who, from the outside, epitomizes a real-life Barbie doll is a thread that will continue into this new project. “This is so much different than my first album, because I'm in such a different place now, and I feel that I finally know who I am,” Hilton says. “I was able to really create music that has meaning behind it. Of course, it's still going to be pop, and still be fun and very 'Paris' vibes, but I also wanted to tell my story through my music.”
Almost as if the early aughts were upon us yet again, Hilton’s music career isn’t the only thing getting a reboot. The reality TV veteran is also set to appear on screens again with a very familiar co-star, Nicole Richie. Whether or not the two are saddling up for anything remotely reminiscent of their hit series The Simple Life, which ran for five seasons starting in 2003, remains to be revealed. According to Hilton, the unexpected TV reunion is one that’s been cooking up between her and Richie since a text conversation two Christmases ago.
Courtesy of Absolut
“All my memories in life are with her, and when we get together, I just feel like a kid again,” Hilton says. “We're really excited to get together and create something that's really fun and iconic, and a love letter to all of the fans.” One thing we can probably expect from another Hilton-Richie reality show is another slew of outfits to reference in a few years' time—much like the baby tees and tracksuits from The Simple Life that live on in the Y2K resurgence today. “Nicole and I didn't have stylists, so it’s really cool to see that people love all that fashion. I love Y2K fashion as well, so I would wear basically everything that I wore back then, except for Von Dutch and Ed Hardy.”
Despite being at the top of her industry for over 20 years, Hilton isn't slowing down. But if the New York-bred heiress didn’t know the path she was paving then—“It was just me being me,” she says—she does now. These days, her influence is dual-ended: it sells very cute Cosmopolitan glasses, and it helps pass state laws to protect children within the "troubled teen" industry. “Before, it was more about having fun. Now, I’ve realized how much I can use that influence for my advocacy and for helping inspire people to be able to empower others.”