Print exclusive: Karlie Kloss, the surprising supermodel

This morning, nearly a decade after we first met when I styled and interviewed her for a Teen Vogue story, I feel like a very different, yet at the same time familiar Kloss, is sitting in front of me. We’re in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, where she used to scurry to and from castings and fittings, nervously clutching her portfolio. Now, at 25, Kloss is a business-savvy boss who commands her own operation, which is perched on the top floor of a substantial prewar building. I enter the buzzy, multi-roomed Klossy headquarters, which resembles a cool startup company. Kloss, 6ft 2in, stands in the center of the newsroom-style office. She is somewhere between a flaxen-haired lightening rod and a mother hen surrounded by her young (not far from her own age), stylishly laid-back, mostly female staff. I catch her off-guard as she converses – unrehearsed and fully in her element.

One gets the sense that, in real life, Kloss doesn’t live and die for fashion or the latest trends, but tends to opt for a more timeless simplicity. She’s dressed in a sophisticated but youthful ensemble befitting a young, in-the-know CEO: a black Wolford bodysuit, quilted Frame leather trousers that resemble a Chanel bag, and Versace kitten heels. Kloss and her sensible kicks have managed to merge two contrasting worlds – high fashion and “getting down to business” – into one seamless whole.

“Who’d have thought 10 years ago we’d be here meeting in your office?” I quip, after reminiscing about the many times we met at mine for go-sees, interviews, the occasional Met Gala fitting, and regular old chitchat. “I still pinch myself sometimes,” she says. “Ten years ago I was sitting on an airplane flying back and forth between St. Louis and New York and writing my bucket list dreams in my journal. If you had told me then I would still be in New York 10 years later, I would have found that hard to believe.” She leads me into the sun-drenched corner conference room and sits down at a reclaimed wooden table. “We’re building businesses here and making a real impact in the world. When I started my career, I wanted to just survive another season – I thought of everything in six-month increments. Not to mention I was in high school and my priorities were, ‘How can I still get straight A’s and also do this after-school side hustle called modeling?’”

Kloss was first scouted aged 13 at a charity fashion show by Jeff and Mary Clarke, the husband-and-wife team behind Mother Model Management, who are also responsible for discovering Ashton Kutcher and later Grace Hartzel. Her stratospheric rise began two years later with her New York Fashion Week debut at Calvin Klein. “When I walked that runway, I didn’t know a single person in the audience and I was thinking, ‘OK, I gotta do my chemistry homework,’” recalls Kloss, who’d started high school just a few days earlier. “Every moment of that first trip to New York was a Cinderella experience, and had it not happened, there is a high likelihood I would have taken a very different route and not pursued this in a serious way. I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here today.”

Despite retaining a modicum of typical teenage life, Kloss spent much of her coming-of-age years in the spotlight, shape-shifting into different roles for editorials and campaigns at a time when most young people are trying to figure out who they are. Instead of having an identity crisis, Kloss both embraced it and took it with a grain of salt. “I had ballet training growing up and I saw modeling through that lens, as this new character to take on. I never associated it with my personality and my taste as an individual.”

As her confidence grew she matured from a sprite, ethereal waif to confident vixen strutting down international catwalks. “I have a different body today than I did when I first started this career,” she says, admitting that she felt freakishly tall in her youth. “I’ve had to grow into my own skin in a lot of ways and there was a shift in my head where I was like, ‘I don’t want to be skinny. I want to be strong.’ I feel better in my own skin when I am like that. It’s how I take care of my body, what I eat. Not to an excessive point where I’m scared to gain a pound, but I have a long list of things that I want to accomplish and I need strength and energy to do that.”

Conversely, starting to model in her teens actually saved Kloss from being self-conscious. “There’s connectivity within our industry. In my experience, it’s been like a giant family,” she says, explaining that her experience was informed by mentors like Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington. And, in turn, she is paying back the compliment by helping the next generation. “Kaia is very fortunate she has Karlie as a fashion-business big sister,” says Cindy Crawford, who I catch up with on the phone. “She understands what it’s like to be in Kaia’s shoes and sometimes it’s easier for Kaia to hear the same advice from someone other than her mother! I also know that Karlie is keeping an eye out for Kaia and that gives me comfort as I can’t be there every minute.”

Kloss and I discuss the recent industry-wide model guidelines, such as Condé Nast’s new 18-and-over model age limit. While she has been fortunate enough not to have fallen victim to negative behavior or harassment, she understands the immediate importance for the industry to evolve and change. “I had a unique situation because my family was so involved,” she says. “I can only speak to my experience, and I have had nothing but mostly positive experiences. However, I think the industry has a responsibility to protect individuals who aren’t so lucky.”

Our conversation naturally turns to the #MeToo movement sweeping across Hollywood and now the fashion industry – most notably the implications regarding photographers Mario Testino, Bruce Weber, Patrick Demarchelier and Terry Richardson, although ever the politician, she avoids saying anything controversial. “My experiences have been incredibly positive, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t dark corners of the industry and dark things that have happened,” she says. “The fact that everything is surfacing in this moment and that light is being brought to these stories is not only incredibly important for the awareness of those truths, but will actually lead to ongoing conversation and future change.”