Since emerging onto New York’s elite social scene as a teenager, Paris Hilton’s platinum blond hair and glamorous style have made the hotel heiress instantly recognizable worldwide.
Now, at 43, the international DJ, style trendsetter and mom — who has spent more than two decades in the spotlight — is trying something different to escape the public eye, even momentarily.
During a pre-holiday shopping trip to Beverly Hills with husband Carter Reum, Hilton, whose face has graced everything from magazine covers to reality TV shows to billboards all over the world, attempted to blend in with other shoppers.
The “Simple Life” star transformed from her signature blond hair to a shoulder-length brunette wig, which she hid beneath a $795 Prada bucket hat and oversized sunglasses, according to Page Six. She also seemed to have ditched her eyes for brown.
Yet even in disguise, the woman who coined the phrase “That’s Hot” couldn’t fully abandon her big spending lifestyle. Despite wearing casual athleisure – a striped zip-up hoodie and black sweatpants – paparazzi spotted Hilton carrying two Chanel bags, a black quilted carry-all, and a white purse.
Her husband Reum, also 43, matched her chill look in simple black attire and white footwear. The couple’s attempt at being undetectable didn’t prevent them from spending money in shops like the Chanel boutique.
Social media quickly lit up with reactions to the “Infinite Icon” singer’s transformed appearance. “Paris is unrecognizable with dark hair!” wrote one person, while another said, “Gonna confuse the kids — she’s quite unrecognizable. Probably only a wig to fend off the paps.”
“This is not Paris. Doesn’t look anything like her,” a fan wrote on Instagram.
Some fans missed her iconic blond look, begging her to “stay blonde,” and others applauded her privacy strategy, writing, “That’s some superstar shizznit. #goals.”
A few simply said, “She looks good in dark hair. It makes her look younger” and “Probably a wig, but she looks 100 times better and classier as a brunette. She actually looks cute and pretty in that bucket hat.”
Yeah, but I'll bet the camera crew following her around gave her away
— Mike (@Mike0243) December 24, 2024
Many suggested Hilton wasn’t walking around incognito and wanted to be spotted.
“Yeah, but I’ll bet the camera crew following her around gave her away,” one person tweeted.
This isn’t Hilton’s first attempt at going incognito. She employed a similar strategy during last year’s holiday shopping season.
In a candid September interview with Nylon, Hilton shared a glimpse into her ever-growing collection of disguises, revealing, “I have hundreds of wigs. So, it could be any color with giant sunglasses, a hat, a hoodie, sometimes a face mask.”
She adds in the talk that she does this “just to be able to be undercover and run around and do fun stuff and be normal.”
According to Hilton, goes through these elaborate measures allow her to navigate public spaces incognito while spending time with her family, which includes her two children with Reum — 23-month-old son, Phoenix, and 13-month-old daughter, London.
To let her tell it, she has done this so that she can go places like Disneyland or the farmers market.
Hilton, who grew up in the spotlight as America’s self-proclaimed royalty and cemented her status as a pop culture icon in the early 2000s, acknowledges that blending in doesn’t come easy. Fans might not have known Kim Kardashian or Nicole Richie had Hilton not been the socialite they orbited, solidifying her status as the original “it girl.”
These days, Hilton’s evolution from nightlife queen to a privacy-seeking wife and mother is on full display.
She also has evolved into a policy maker. In fact, on Dec. 24, a bill that she had her name attached to, the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, was signed into law by President Joe Biden. The law will hold treatment centers and care facilities accountable if they have systems that poorly impact and serve children.
The goal is to stop the mistreatment of minors wherever it happens. A far cry from the seemingly self-absorbed from her 2003 to 2007 reality show, “The Simple Life.”
Yet, one thing hasn’t changed — her love for the finer things. Whether donning a wig or a hoodie, she’ll do what it takes to get what she wants, proving that some habits die hard, even under disguise.
