Saturday, January 30, 2016

Kendall Jenner Reveals The Secret To Her Success

Kendall Jenner's passion for modelling has changed little since she presented her parents with a self-produced portfolio at the formative age of 14 - a scenario that was later broadcast on their reality TV show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. 

Her enthusiasm for her job and the industry is evident in the tone of her voice, which becomes more serious as the conversation turns to her career aspirations: "I want this to last, I want it to be something big and I want it to be something special," she nodded. Her conviction in the statement makes it evident that is not the first time these thoughts have run through the now 20-year-old's mind.

In 2015, Jenner made her Victoria's Secret debut (a feat she had long desired), booked campaigns for the likes of Fendi and Calvin Klein and boasted catwalk appearances for Chanel, Michael Kors and Diane von Furstenberg amongst others.


However, these achievements did little to distract attention from her personal life and the changing structure of her blended family. Looking forward, the next thing on her career bucket list is simply "longevity".

Conscious of the perils of fast fame and not happy resting on the family name, Jenner is set on achieving a long career by working hard and constantly learning. She looks to models who have been booking jobs since even before her 1995 birth. "Mariacarla Boscono has taught me a lot, and I have been lucky enough to become good friends with so many amazing models", she told us.

She is lucky enough to call people at the top end of the industry her mentors - Karl Lagerfeld, Olivier Rousteing and Marc Jacobs among them. "You learn from your experiences and you learn from working with these people even if they're not telling your straight up 'Do this, do that, you shouldn't do that,' you learn from just being around them."

Another well-known confidante is one of her best friends, Cara Delevingne. The pair now even have their own acronym "CaKe", and this London Fashion Week, Madam Tussauds will unveil waxworks of them both. An experience Jenner describes as "Cool - they measured every part of my body. Some that I didn't even know existed."


In June, the pair were spotted wearing T-shirts bearing the moniker. "What is CaKe and how can we get their hands on the merchandise?" asked the internet. "We basically made it up and it's our thing now. We call each other CaKe", confesses Jenner who is wearing a gold CaKe necklace when we meet.

A lucrative move for the girls would be to license the phrase out, but despite the rumours, "right now it is a personal thing," says Jenner, a strong emphasis on the now, hinting that there could be something to come.

"CaKe" have much in common, along with the likes of Gigi Hadid and her younger sister Bella; they are often referred to as social-media supermodels. Girls who boast millions of fans watching their every move. Jenner's current 47 million Instagram followers are hard to ignore. Their success is the opposite to the appeal of the Nineties supermodels' alluring mystique. Instead, through social media and personal apps, Jenner and her friends invite their fans into their life, posting every move they make.

She puts her Instagram success down to the personal touch her feed has, insisting that every post is done by her: "My Instagram is all me. I like to keep it very personal and I'd like to keep it that way. You don't really follow to see promotional things at all times. It's my connection with my fans."

As she hosted a party in Barcelona to celebrate her new role as an ambassador for Spanish high-street chain Mango, hundreds of fans lined the streets. Their "Kendall, Kendall!" chants silencing the pumping music inside the venue, the hysteria reaching its peak when she happily obliged to take selfies with the screaming and crying throng. Jenner remained as composed as she was when we were sitting one-on-one as when dozens surrounded her in the VIP area, a bodyguard never further than a foot away.


What is unique about Jenner's situation is that it is not only she that receives this raucous and intense media attention - her whole family does too. She confesses that the fame does put a strain on her friendships, but is keen to remain close with those who are not involved in the industry. "I think it's important to have people who are out of it because it brings you back to reality and keeps you grounded. It's definitely hard to find a good friend who is genuine and doesn't really care about that kind of stuff, but you find those people and they are great, it's nice to step out of it with them for a minute."

Long before the cameras were welcomed into her house and Paris came calling, Jenner's early years were spent riding ponies in California and playing as much sport as she could - fashion was not a priority. "When I was really young I can remember being into fashion, but I was really into horses and sports. My entire life I just wanted a pony and I couldn't care less about a pair of shoes." She later admits that she did own three at one time. but due to her busy schedule they have since been rehomed.

Eventually, fashion creeped into her conscious. Her earliest memories involve tripping over in her older sisters' too-big shoes and riffling through her mother's magazines to "fangirl over the supermodels, always hoping that one day I could be like that for some little girl who was looking in a magazine." Box ticked.

In the week that sees her debut line with her sister, Kendall & Kylie, revealed, a new Calvin Klein campaign unveiled and her position as a brand ambassador for Mango cemented, it is clear that Jenner's focus is on fashion and, arguably, the gesture is reciprocated.

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