Excuse me?
Tales of sexist Hollywood auditions from the likes of Alison Brie and Emmy Rossum have entered the limelight and now, the modelling industry is next on the chopping block. While stories of nightmarish scrutiny and body policing have always surrounded the fashion world, Karlie Kloss revealed her own personal experience with body shaming and it’s a shocker.
During a panel at the Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity, the supermodel turned tech entrepreneur revealed, ‘I was called both too fat and too thin by a casting agent on the same day.’
Karlie Kloss rose to prominence as a Victoria’s Secret Angel and has been a favourite amongst renowned fashion brands including Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Swarovski. While she continues to model, she has since taken steps away from the industry and diverted her attentions to Kode with Klossy, a girls-only computer science camp, and her YouTube vlogging channel Klossy.
While she acknowledged in her panel that coding wasn’t ‘the sexiest thing’, she revealed to a standing ovation how she had overcome the cut throat modelling world by remaining true to her own passions and said, ‘I don’t want to please anyone but myself.’
She also talked about the surge of high-powered women in the fashion industry, with big names such as Clare Waight Keller taking over Givenchy, and acknowledged that brands were gradually changing their tune.
She said, ‘I think brands and companies are listening. There is a real time dialogue [with your audience] that happens whether you want it or not, there is a real time response to what you’re putting out there...The underlying tone that is effective ultimately is - it’s so over said, I’m not the first person to say this - is authenticity.’
We hear you, girl. We’re down for more of Kloss versus the gloss and here’s hoping the sartorial world continues spinning in the right direction.
