Karlie Kloss Wishes She'd Been "A Little Older" When She Started Catwalking

By Jenna Sauers  |  September 12, 2011 | 6:00pm
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[Noted fashion photographer] and former model Nigel Barker says even though under-16-year-olds are not meant to be walking in New York fashion week shows this season, of the models he’s seen, “they seem like they’re all 16. It would be nice to see older people on the runways. The fashion industry has had an issue with weight for so many years, and we’ve been trying to address that, but still — very skinny and very young.” The Council of Fashion Designers of America has long officially suggested that designers not hire girls under 16 to walk in their shows, and this season, the organization made the additional suggestion that models should be carded at castings. (This voluntary guideline has been ignored by some.) Barker makes the point that even if the minimum standard is now theoretically 16, that doesn’t mean every runway model has to be exactly 16. They could be, you know, slightly older. “We should see fuller-figured girls, and older! Why don’t we just see women? I mean, women are who buy the clothes. If you can’t put them on a woman, what are you trying to say?” [The Cut]
“I’m an old lady at 19,” jokes Karlie Kloss. Although she started modeling at 13, and had two seasons of international runway work under her belt by her 16th birthday, she supports restricting runway work to models over age 16. “I think it’s great. Because I started when I was 15, there’s no doubt there are lots of things that I wish, um, you know, I dunno — I wish I would have been a little more mature. A little older. Because there’s a lot. This career, there’s a lot you have to handle and it’s somewhat difficult when you’re thrown into it and you don’t really know what to do.” [The Cut]

Rihanna’s first ad for Emporio Armani jeans — she is replacing Megan Fox as the, ahem, “face” of the brand — just dropped. [WWD]

The Cambridge Satchel Company, which makes those neon leather cross-body bags that have been all over the street style blogs for, oh, about a year now, says its sales are strong. Surprise, surprise. [WWD]

Transsexual model Lea T.’s campaign for the Brazilian swimwear brand Blue Man just came out. [Made in Brazil]

Kate Moss’s childhood school photo is adorable. [Women24]

BREAKING: Anna Wintour laughed. [Refinery29]

  • This gif of model Sui He backstage at Joseph Altuzarra is both beautiful and terrifying. Link NSF epileptics. [Refinery29]
  • Diane von Furstenberg, on where she was on 9/11: “I was making my breakfast, and opening the New York Times and reading Cathy Horyn’s review of my collection and then the first plane crashed, and then the second. This morning I watched the memorial; I thought it was very beautiful. I thought of my girlfriend that I lost. I feel very American today. And yet I’m not really, but today I feel very American.” [The Cut]
  • Just as we suspected, Fashion’s Night Out doesn’t actually make stores any money. But most retailers have to say nice things about it on the record because they are (justifiably) afraid of Anna Wintour and FNO is her baby. “If you look at it over one night, you could say at best, it’s break-even,” admits the president of Saks, which was said to have spent into the six figures on its FNO events. Says the C.E.O. of Lord & Taylor, “It exposed people to the store who otherwise might not have come here. They could come back and spend more.” Could! One C.E.O., who requested anonymity, said, “If Anna takes a year off with this, I wouldn’t complain.” Bud Konheim, the C.E.O. of Nicole Miller, is unusually blunt: “There’s no buying. FNO is not a commercial retail event. FNO is a hype where anybody can go and get a free drink in any store in New York. What does it do for business? Nothing…In terms of the money we spent on FNO, we didn’t get it back.” [WWD]
  • It seems talks to instal Marc Jacobs at the house of Christian Dior have hit a snag. A $10-million snag. Because that’s how much salary Jacobs and Robert Duffy want. Each. “Sources said the talks are proving difficult, with one sticking point believed to be that Jacobs and his long-time business partner Robert Duffy are seeking a substantial increase on their current salary and benefits packages, which already place them among the highest-paid designers and fashion executives in the world…The duo are believed to be looking for a salary somewhere in the low eight figures each, plus other benefits.” [WWD]
  • After the Edun show yesterday, Bono and Ali Hewson threw a party at the Red Rooster restaurant in Harlem. (Which, by the way, is really good.) Not yet partied out, they then headed two blocks downtown to the Lenox Lounge, a beautiful, Deco-era jazz club that always seems to have a couple old dudes playing chess on a roll-up board at one of the tables in front. Then Bono got up with the band and sang “Night and Day.” [The Cut]
  • Dandyish 17-year-old Peter Brant, Jr., the elder son of Stephanie Seymour and Brant Publications head Peter Brant, is going to contribute interviews to Interview, which Brant père publishes. Subjects will include “Daphne Guinness, who is an old friend of mine. Ralph Lauren, people like that. John Galliano.” [WWD]
  • $1200 clutch purses: just one of the perks of working for a ladymag. [Refinery29]
  • Alexa Chung, on being rated Worst Dressed in the tabloids: “I think it’s good. I like it when I’ve made the worst dressed page in a gossip mag because it means it’s like the best dressed in another context. I don’t want to dress like everyone else.” [Fashionista]
  • Paris Hilton is going to hawk her handbags in India. [WWD]
  • And obviously, Vanessa Hudgens is planning to launch a clothing line. [E!]
  • We were actually at this party, but we sure didn’t see Ziggy Sobotka — A.K.A. actor James Ransone. He admitted he’s going to a lot of fashion events this week because “I’m trying to make it look like I’m around a lot more than I actually really am.” And then he said, “I actually probably am really anti-fashion to the extent that I believe clothes should be built to last for a lifetime.” Which is so refreshing it’s almost touching. Godspeed, Ziggy. Glekas had it coming. [Fashionista]
  • Carine Roitfeld threw a karaoke party, and Simon Doonan sang “Nasty Girl.” Then Valentino — who’s apparently been spending a lot of time alone with the karaoke machine on his yacht this summer, the machine having been a gift from Anne Hathaway — sang “My Way.” [The Cut]
  • Alexander Wang’s after-party had a frat house theme. So essentially, what we’re talking is Christina Ricci, Jared Leto, Penn Badgley, Terry Richardson, and a bunch of fashion people drinking keg beer and taking jello shots while inflatable sex dolls with brown skin and red open mouths were passed through the crowd and Tyler from Odd Future yelled about “fags.” Cute. [P6]
  • Fashion critic (and Pulitzer winner) Robin Givhan says that, in the matter of Lady Gaga’s criticism of Cathy Horyn’s criticism of her, she is “Team Cathy…Yeah, I do think that some points of view should carry more weight. I think when someone has a whole decade or more of context, then yeah, I think that their opinion does carry more weight. It’s a little like saying, ‘I don’t think my professor’s opinion should carry more weight than the freshman in his class.’…To dismiss knowledge and experience — I mean, what is that? Like, anti-intellectualism?” Yes. Yes it is. [The Cut]
  • As for Horyn, she published a piece last Thursday calling attention ahead of fashion week to some of the designers she thinks are doing interesting things — Proenza Schouler, Joseph Altuzarra, Prabal Gurung — and taking a swipe at a few heavies, most notably Nicholas Ghesquière of Balenciaga. She also omitted any mention of some of New York’s biggest designers: Vera Wang, Michael Kors, Oscar de la Renta, and Diane von Furstenberg, for example. Women’s Wear Daily contacted them for reactions, and while most took it in good faith, de la Renta sniped, “it really makes me mad when someone writes about fashion in a bitter way.” [NYTimes, WWD]
  • And speaking of the Times critic, she hit up her first of “a bunch” of shows at 9 a.m. on Saturday, then headed to the Roitfeld karaoke party and Alexander Wang party. Then she filed this piece at 3:06 a.m. There’s that Cathy Horyn, making all other journalists look like lazy bums. [On The Runway]

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