Jan 17, 2020
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#Hamburg #smm16
Karlie Kloss for S Moda May 2016 (interview)
Some States predict trends. Not just in fashion, also in politics. In the Mid West, birthplace of supermodels like Cindy Crawford, Misouri is, in its own right, a good barometer of the United States elections. The one who wins there, usually is choosen as the president. Karlie Kloss (23) grew up in Saint Louis, the most important metropolitan area in that State. However, the model doesn’t say anything about who her favorite candidate is. A matter of good manners... and family (in-laws). Her partner is the entrepeneur Joshua Kushner, brother of Ivanka Trump’s husband, and son of one of the most important Jewish families in New York.
“I have amazing parents [her mother, Tracy, is a freelance art director; and her father, Kurt, is an emergency physician]. We are four sisters, and we have a lot of uncles, aunts, cousins... Growing up in the Mid West has given me a solid base built around family values, discipline, hard work and respect”. “It is another world. Like growing inside a bubble, safe and calm”. “Travelling opens you to other cultures and different points of view, but it also teaches you to value your origins”. She packed her bags to rent her own apartment in Manhattan when she was just 14 - she walked for Calvin Klein as an exclusive the same week she started high school-. “I’ve spent my whole life having to balance my work as a model and my studies”, says Karlie, who is currently studying at NYU. “It is comforting to move again in an academic environment. I like the feeling of having to focus and take responsibilities that go beyond the fashion world”.
“Wait a minute, I have to take a photo of this!” says all of a sudden on her way to the airport. She rolls down the window and points her phone to a gigantic billboard with her face on it. It is the Mango campaign where she is the star and that you can see all over Barcelona (and the whole country). “It is nuts. Yesterday we went for a walk around the city. We took a tourist bus and went to Park Güel”. They had to leave to avoid the flashes and the selfies. She knows she doesn’t go unnoticed -”I am 1,88, it is impossible not to see me”- but she doesn’t get used to paparazis (even if they are amateurs).
Nevertheless, she understands the need of capturing the moment to share it on social media. With 4.3 millions of followers on Instagram as well as her own YouTube channel (Klossy), Karlie knows that she is her best mark. The 2.0 version of the Trinity -nickname given at the end of the 80′s to the group of models formed by Christy (Turlington), Naomi (Campbell) and Linda (Evangelista)-. “If it isn’t on Instagram, it never happened”, she sentences before taking a photo of the Tibidabo (that picture will be a latergarm from her visit to the city). “Managing your social media it’s a full time job”. “The internet has changed the way we live, the way we comunicate, the way we buy. Everything is instant. In marketing -with campaigns like #NewMetallics by Mango- as well as in the publishing industry. We live in an almost virtual world”. “The digital technology is a driver of innovation in all the fields. Not just in fashion and photography. Also in health service. It is something that fascinates me and intrigues me. That’s why I started studying programming. I wanted to see, from the inside, how that paralel universe works”.
Binary codes are her favourite language. “It is important to know how to build and interpret informatic data, whereas you want to form as a professional programmer or just want to get into that world as a hobby”. “You can use that knowledge to understand the world better, to think differently, to create an app or to start in any other field”. “In the future, I want to found my own company, and once I do that, I want to have all the tools to be able to build that company by myself instead of hiring someone to do it for me”. To “encourage other girls to discover their nerd side”, last year she launched Kode with Klossy, a scolarship that introduces 21 students to Ruby programming language and that now has been expanded to a summer camp.
As the fashion industry does, Karlie questions the frantic pace of her schedule, trying to find free time to spend with her family or to try new projects. “Now I am more selective and try not to travel that much, though I know the plane is part of my rutine”. “Fashion is a unique sector to empower women. Through the years, I’ve had the chance to meet amazing women, like Diane Von Furstenberg, my mentor and my friend. She has taught me to be who I am and to trust myself. Her designs, like her, transmit an inspiring message”.
She might be young, but her mind travels through the years to rescue stories like if, for her, time was infinite. “I can boast about having worked with Oscar de la Renta”. “He was my teacher in an unconscious way. Wearing one of his designs makes you feel elegant, sofisticated, strong. It is something your learn almost from osmosis. He was a polite man who changed they way I pose”. Today her walk makes her different from the rest, whereas she is wearing a coctel dress from Carolina Herrera or she has to be one of Jeremy Soctt’s characters. “He is from Misouri, just like me. His collections are a perfect mix of humour and intelligence. He knows that you can be serious at work and still have fun”.
Thank you very much iconchic for your help! :)