How and why Kendall Jenner became the main model of the year.
Less than a year 19-year-old Kendall Jenner managed to get out of the shadow of her half-sister Kim Kardashian and become a member of the popular American reality show "Keeping up with the Kardashians" into almost the main sensation of the fashion industry. Magazines from Vogue to Dazed & Confused call it the event of the year, fashion houses of Givenchy rank, Marc Jacobs and Chanel invite to take part in shows and shoot in advertising campaigns, cosmetic giant Estée Lauder makes it their new face, and the number of subscribers in its Instagram account is already exceeded a record 16 million (which is, for a minute, two times more than that of Cara Delevin). The question remains open - what is, in fact, the secret of such a rapid success: honest diligence or the work of a certain PR machine?
Even if you did not watch the show "Keeping up with the Kardashians", which is on the American television channel E! for eight years already, without losing ratings, you probably know at least three names: Kim, Courtney and Chloe - spoken together, they do not even need to mention the name. Each of the Kardashian sisters during the years of the project’s existence has gone from the daughter of Armenian émigrés and the scandalous TV show star with a dubious reputation to a completely self-sufficient unit that has realized itself in the media sphere.
Only today all three sisters of Kardashian have nothing better to do than to bask in the glory of their 19-year-old step-sister, Kendall Jenner. Maybe (unless, of course, you are not a dedicated Keeping up with the Kardashians fan or you do not live in the States), you did not even suspect the existence of this girl, the eldest daughter Chris Jenner, and the Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner. Exactly until February 14 of this year, Kendall walked the runway at the Marc Jacobs show, which concludes New York Fashion Week. On the threshold there were rumors that, half-sister Kim Kardashian should make her debut this season, but no one had expected such a powerful start.
Each exit Kendall on the podium drew a wave of skepticism: for the "golden girl" with rich parents a career in the modeling business - a question a couple of calls
In fact, this was not Kendall's first appearance on the catwalk: she participated in the show of the American designer Sherri Hill in the spring-summer 2012 and spring-summer 2013 seasons. However, her runway began with the Marc Jacobs show. In the same autumn-winter 2014/2015 season, Jenner will do three more shows: Giles, Givenchy and Chanel, that is, one of the most important ones in all fashion weeks except Milan. Of course, the achievement is not comparable with the girls debutante, which shoot at two or three dozen shows at once from the first season, but, given the very unfashionable background, it is quite good. Naturally, Kendall’s every exit to the podium was filled with skepticism, which is understandable: for a “golden girl” with rich and influential parents behind the back of a career in the modeling business, a question of a couple of calls, but to what extent the real talent is supported, time will tell.
It took quite a bit of time. Already at the end of the fashion week marathon, the creative director Givenchy and part-time close friend of the Kardashian family Ricardo Tishi offered Kendall a contract for the Givenchy advertising campaign, and Karl Lagerfeld participated in the Chanel haute couture autumn-winter show - 2014/2015, which is already almost unconditional recognition and green light. Then, stylist Katie Grand (who, by the way, was responsible for the casting of that very show Marc Jacobs) shot Kendall for the cover of her magazine Love with the launch of “American Girl”. So Katie translates the idea of the American dream. Kim wanted to get on the cover of Vogue - hit. Kendall dreamed of becoming a model - and now: “Working as a model is not the goal to prove something to people. This is what I always wanted to do,” explained the young star of the catwalks.
Following Love, Teen Vogue did the same, and later German Interview. In September, the model appeared on the pages of the main issue for the year of American Vogue, for which it was shot by the legendary Patrick Demarchelier. In the fashion weeks of the future spring-summer season, the model has already completed 13 shows, and not a single intermediate: all Dolce & Gabbana, Balmain, Diane von Furstenberg and Fendi, after which Marc Jacobs made her the face of his new collection's campaign. In the winter issue of Dazed & Confused, closing the year 2014, a big ficher dedicated to Kendall, with the title “Kendall: changing the face of fashion”, entered. The final number of the year Vogue USA was decorated with a full shot with Jenner in the title role. The last loud news was the appointment of Kendall as the face of the cosmetics company Estée Lauder, as a result of which the brand received three days plus 50 thousand new subscribers in its Instagram. In November, the authoritative portal Models.com included Kendall in the top 50 models of the year. Not a bad portfolio for someone who started his way into large models some 11 months ago. There is a logical question - how?
A couple of years ago, the industry started talking about the “phenomenon of Kara,” when the British model with the most prominent eyebrows gave out three dozen impressions season after season, all of which were headliners, becoming the face of ad campaigns of the Burberry, Chanel and Saint Laurent brands, entered the family. Victoria's angels' angels, and then completely launched collaborations, first with DKNY, and then with Mulberry. Only here over the past two seasons Kara made a total of only 14 shows, which, in general, does not prevent her from remaining almost as demanded and earning 6,500 pounds a day. The most remarkable thing in this story is not even the reason why a model with not the most unique and memorable person achieved such popularity. Interestingly, it was Cara Delevingne who set this new trend among the models - such girls next door, who took the baton from the androgynous Freya Behi Eriksen and Agnes Dane, the puppet Jessica Stem and Gemma Ward and finally the luxurious Linda Evangelists and Helena Christensen.
Kendall Jenner fits perfectly into this girls next door trend. Of course, one might think that a girl with a completely emotionally frigid face and the complete absence of any charisma could hardly be appreciated by industry professionals without the help of her family’s connections. Especially if you remember that her mother, Chris Jenner, is a great manager of her own family, ready to use any dill for PR (talking about sex videos featuring Kim Kardashian, which, according to rumors, broke up online, not without Chris). Of course, there was some cost without promotion support, but it’s not just that.
Kendall Jenner has four times more followers than Barack Obama. Not surprisingly, TIME magazine included her on the list of the most influential teenagers on the planet, along with Malala Yusufzai and Obama's daughters. Kendall Jenner is a representative of the so-called generation of social media models, young girls who score points not only (and not so much) by professional achievements, but by the number of followers on Facebook and Instagram. These "social media models" - the same Kara, Suki Waterhouse, Gigi Hadid - hang out plus or minus together, work with the most fashionable designers and magazines and generally lead an easy life of typical starlets, which they gladly share on their pages. They belong to the generation of young people who used to create idols through Tumblr accounts and make a popularity rating on the same scale. Because Jenner and give the status of not the model, but the Internet sensation of the year - according to the version of the same Tumblr. And although at every opportunity, Kendall says that "she achieved everything not only because of her pretty face, but through hard work," in fact, we see in action the simple principle of viral spread.
In general, the trend on such completely unremarkable models is a reflex to the modern fashion system as a whole, striving for simplification and commerce. Industries, where the end in itself of every designer is to sell this or that thing, we need just such ordinary people with pleasant and regular features. They are an ideal background for clothes, and if this person is also a media one, the cumulative effect increases exponentially. In addition, celebrities are selling today. Look at the latest advertising campaigns of fashion giants from Versace and Balmain to Puma and adidas: Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Niki Minaj, Rita Ora, Rihanna, Madonna - only stars, only hardcore.
In the Love issue with Kendall Jenner on the cover, the model is called the main girl of the year. And here it is very opportune to recall a quote from the story of Rudyard Kipling in 1904, from where, in fact, the term went to the people: "It’s not beauty, so it’s good to speak, it’s not good talk. It's just“ It ”." So, with beauty and communication with Jenner, everything is in order, but the very “It” is a big question.