“This Was the Met Gala I Broke the Internet. But Not in a Good Way”—Karlie Kloss Reflects Back on Her Life in Looks

Vogue

Model Karlie Kloss reminisces on her life in looks, from getting trolled by the internet to walking for Alexander McQueen.  Director: Gabrielle Reich         Director Of Photography: Josh Herzog         Editor: Katie Wolford Producer: Qieara Lesesne Associate Director, Creative Development: Alexandra Gurvitch Associate Producer: Lea Donenberg         Production Assistant: Ziyne Abdo         Assistant Camera: Zach Eisen         Gaffer: Esteban Veras         Set Designer: Taylor Horne         Set Design Assistant: Javier Scalley         Audio: Nicole Maupin         Production Coordinator: Ava Kashar Production Manager: Natasha Soto-Albors Line Producer: Romeeka Powell Senior Director, Production Management: Jessica Schier Assistant Editor: Andy Morell Post Production Coordinator: Jovan James Supervising Editor: Kameron Key Post Production Supervisor: Edward Taylor Talent Booker: Phoebe Feinberg         Entertainment Director: Sergio Kletnoy Director of Content, Production: Rahel Gebreyes Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson Executive Producer: Ruhiya Nuruddin VP, Digital Video English: Thespena Guatieri Filmed at Pendry Manhattan West Images by Webster Groves High School

Transcript

00:00 I almost burnt the house down, but I did book the show.

00:02 So I guess it was memorable.

00:05 [upbeat music]

00:07 Hi Vogue, I'm Carly Closs, and this is my life in looks.

00:11 [sighs]

00:11 I'm a little nervous.

00:13 Look number one, oh, this is a good place to start.

00:17 This was Calvin Klein, September 2007,

00:21 and it was the very same week

00:23 that I started my freshman year of high school.

00:26 So I started school on Monday, and by Friday,

00:28 I was in New York meeting with Francisco Costa,

00:31 the designer of Calvin Klein at the time,

00:33 and I really had never been to New York Fashion Week.

00:37 I'd only been to New York maybe once at this point.

00:39 I'm 15 years old, and I remember when I got the phone call,

00:43 I was standing on the corner of 35th and 7th with my mom,

00:48 and we were both huddled around this tiny little cell phone,

00:53 and my agent was like, "Carly, you booked the exclusive."

00:56 My mom and I just looked at each other like,

00:58 "We have no idea what that means,

00:59 but this is good, right?

01:01 This is good."

01:02 I remember stepping off this runway

01:04 and feeling like something special had happened,

01:07 and it was pretty much overnight I had a career

01:11 because of this Calvin Klein runway show.

01:13 Ooh, this one was one of my favorites

01:18 that I had the privilege to walk in

01:21 in an Alexander McQueen show.

01:23 It was like a flood of memories coming back to me.

01:25 So I remember moments before I was walking out

01:27 on this runway show.

01:28 It felt so special.

01:29 I knew kind of what a privilege it was

01:32 to be wearing this big dress,

01:33 and I was so excited to kind of get out there

01:37 and be a part of this experience, this performance.

01:39 You know, there was a big trash heap covered in black paint,

01:43 and I said to Lee, I said, "I'm so nervous.

01:46 I really hope I don't ruin your show because I might trip."

01:50 This dress kept getting caught under my heel,

01:52 and he said, "Carly, if you trip, own it.

01:57 You own the dress.

01:58 The dress does not own you."

02:00 And that is something that I have carried with me forever,

02:03 and we'll never forget him saying, and I did.

02:05 I tripped.

02:06 The dress got caught under my heel,

02:08 and I replayed his words in my head,

02:10 and I took the dress and I threw it out

02:12 in a very dramatic way,

02:14 and it actually became imagery

02:16 that became the campaign for that season.

02:19 Meanwhile, I was worried I was gonna ruin the show,

02:22 and it turned into a very special moment.

02:25 But I had this Hannah Montana life,

02:27 as I like to explain it, best of both worlds situation

02:30 where I was like a total normal, lame nerd in Missouri

02:35 that I loved that part of my life

02:38 just as much as kind of jet setting to Paris,

02:41 had an apartment in New York as a 15, 16, 17-year-old kid.

02:46 Okay, what's next?

02:47 Oh, I love this image.

02:50 Okay, this was another whirlwind experience

02:55 where this image went alongside a story called "I, Carly."

02:59 This portrait was shot by Annie Leibovitz

03:02 for September 2009, very big deal.

03:06 Because I was 15 years old when I started my career,

03:09 all throughout kind of my teenage years,

03:11 I would have my mom, my aunt, my grandmother,

03:14 my English teacher, anybody come with me on these shoots.

03:18 And I have my amazing high school teacher, Ms. Brewster,

03:23 who was like my partner in crime,

03:25 jet setting to like haute couture Paris fashion week.

03:27 And she would come with me

03:29 and we both kind of would look at each other like,

03:32 "I can't believe we get to do this."

03:34 Ms. Brewster is still very much in my life.

03:36 She literally is staying with my family

03:38 in St. Louis right now.

03:39 So she's part of the fam.

03:41 This was October 2009 for the Spring/Summer 2010 runway show.

03:47 If this runway show was today,

03:51 it would feel as kind of brilliant

03:54 and relevant.

03:56 This is the last time I saw Lee in person.

03:59 And I remember just the feeling backstage

04:04 of some sort of closure in some way

04:08 that I certainly didn't understand at the time.

04:10 And I did understand though,

04:12 how hard it was to walk in these shoes.

04:14 'Cause these are the Armadillo shoes.

04:15 People criticized my walk in like sneakers

04:19 and much less in shoes like this.

04:22 Next one.

04:23 Ooh, okay.

04:24 This one was a Christian Dior haute couture runway show.

04:29 One of the greatest privileges in my career

04:32 was actually the relationship that I had

04:34 with John Galliano when he was designing

04:36 for the house of Christian Dior.

04:38 John and I didn't exchange a ton of words

04:41 during that period.

04:42 I almost didn't want to ruin the dream.

04:45 I almost didn't want to like open my mouth

04:47 and worry that like, if he actually knew me,

04:50 like would he not like me?

04:51 So I kind of just almost stayed this silent movie star

04:55 on his runways and in his atelier

04:58 and on set with him, with Steven Meisel.

05:01 And I loved that.

05:02 I loved kind of getting lost in his characters.

05:05 And so we had this just like kind of love affair

05:08 of a working relationship.

05:10 My prom dress was also Dior.

05:11 Oh yeah, that was actually a really fun week.

05:14 I went to my high school prom on Friday

05:18 and then the following Monday,

05:19 I went to the Met Gala, both wearing Dior.

05:22 The relationship that I had with the house of Dior

05:25 and still have to this day,

05:27 I could not have dreamt of anybody more special

05:31 to make my wedding dress.

05:33 I also didn't think that I would have the privilege

05:36 to wear a Dior couture wedding dress,

05:38 not just for a fantasy photo shoot,

05:40 but really for my real life.

05:41 So that was really special.

05:43 Next one.

05:44 Oh, I love this one.

05:46 I was having the haircut.

05:48 This was not just like a staged photo.

05:50 I was actually having my hair chopped off

05:52 and my hair was like such model hair.

05:55 I had walked in a thousand runway shows at this point.

05:58 And so it was all like dead ends and it needed a good chop.

06:02 And so I was like, of course,

06:04 I'll chop off my hair for Vogue, of course.

06:06 And I'm glad I did because this was that kind

06:09 of a turning moment, I think, in my career.

06:11 Anna wanted me to keep it a secret, which I get.

06:14 She wanted the big reveal to be in January Vogue.

06:18 But the problem was that this photograph

06:20 was taken in October.

06:22 And I think like the next week after the shoot,

06:24 I was walking in the Victoria's Secret fashion show.

06:27 So I tried my best.

06:29 I had like a ton of extensions put into my hair

06:31 to hide my bob, but the secret was out.

06:34 Okay, next look.

06:36 Oh my God.

06:36 Okay, there we go.

06:37 So this was a Victoria's Secret show where I had short hair.

06:40 I loved this look.

06:42 This was Victoria's Secret 2013.

06:45 I remember every time I put it on though,

06:47 like a thousand beads fell off.

06:49 So they were like constantly just sewing more

06:51 little sequins on here.

06:53 I first walked in a Victoria's Secret show in 2011

06:57 after I had graduated high school,

06:59 which was so funny because I think that was many years

07:01 into my runway career, but it was the first time

07:04 that my friends back home had seen me on a runway

07:07 and it's very cool.

07:09 Okay, next page.

07:10 Oh, oh my gosh, I love this was,

07:14 this was everything.

07:16 September Vogue.

07:18 I got to be on the cover.

07:20 Being on a Vogue cover is like winning the Super Bowl.

07:23 Being on a September Vogue cover is like,

07:26 you won a Nobel prize as a model.

07:28 Like it doesn't get any better than that.

07:30 And so I had this incredible privilege

07:32 of being on the September Vogue cover

07:34 with Cara Delevingne and Joan Smalls.

07:37 And this was right at the time that Instagram

07:40 was kind of taking the world by storm

07:42 and transforming the fashion industry

07:46 and what it meant to be a model

07:47 because you could be more than just a face

07:50 in a picture in Vogue,

07:51 but you were actually becoming more and more known

07:55 as like who you are.

07:56 So this was like a turning point in the world

07:59 and certainly in my career.

08:01 Okay, next page.

08:02 Okay, I was on my way to class at NYU.

08:07 I'm like never trying to be a cool girl.

08:09 I'm just like living my life clearly

08:11 in like jeans and a sweatshirt going to school

08:15 in sandals.

08:16 What was I thinking?

08:17 I don't know.

08:18 I feel so lucky that Cindy Crawford

08:21 and Christy Turlington and Naomi

08:24 and so many others, Natalia Valjanova and Dotson Crows.

08:28 I mean, so many amazing models that have been in my life

08:33 personally and professionally

08:34 that I have gotten to learn from,

08:37 especially in new chapters in my life as a mom.

08:39 And they have been really, really supportive in my life

08:43 through every step.

08:44 Christy Turlington did encourage me to go to NYU

08:47 and she wrote my letter of recommendation.

08:49 So very, very fortunate.

08:51 Aha, this was a Aliyah show.

08:55 Actually, this was the last time that I saw Azzedine.

08:58 The first time that I met Azzedine Aliyah was in 2011

09:02 and being able to be in his atelier

09:04 surrounded by these like mountains of fabric.

09:08 And most of all, just like when you're with somebody

09:10 so brilliant and so iconic,

09:14 he had shaped the course of fashion.

09:19 Oh boy, okay, yes.

09:20 This was the Met Gala that I think I broke the internet,

09:23 but not in a good way.

09:25 I still get trolled about this look

09:29 where I was looking camp straight in the eye

09:31 and I still get rightfully get trolled.

09:34 I'll accept it.

09:36 Honestly, I deserve that one.

09:38 This was May, 2019.

09:41 And this was for the Met Gala

09:42 that was Camp Notes on Fashion.

09:45 And this was a design created by Dapper Dan for Gucci.

09:48 I met Dapper Dan actually through an episode

09:51 of Project Runway, which I was hosting at the time.

09:54 And I did a challenge in his studio in Harlem

09:57 and he and I really hit it off

09:59 and I think he offered to design my dress.

10:02 Okay, next one.

10:04 Oh, this was Project Runway.

10:06 I'm wearing a full Tom Brown look, still have it.

10:10 I had so much fun on Project Runway,

10:13 especially with Nina Garcia and Brandon Maxwell,

10:17 Elaine Welteroth, Christian Siriano.

10:19 And it was so fun to have a designer

10:21 like Tom Brown on the show

10:23 and to be kind of working with

10:25 kind of this next generation of talent.

10:28 Next, ah, Vogue World, of course.

10:31 This outfit I loved.

10:33 This was a Rick Owens look.

10:36 I remember the song that was playing was, was it Vogue?

10:40 Yeah, it was Vogue, of course.

10:42 The Vogue was playing at Vogue World, it was very appropriate

10:45 and I think I literally like pretended

10:47 like I knew how to Vogue.

10:48 It was like a reflex, like I should not have done it

10:50 'cause I don't know how to Vogue.

10:52 But you know, couldn't help myself.

10:54 Okay.

10:55 Ah, oh my gosh.

10:58 This was when I was very pregnant at the Met Gala.

11:02 And this is a look designed by Jonathan Anderson

11:06 for "Lueve."

11:07 And I loved this dress.

11:10 I love this dress.

11:11 This whole just idea of a Met Gala look,

11:16 which I learned my lesson to take

11:18 to really like do my homework and do it right.

11:20 Walking a red carpet is intimidating always,

11:23 but I don't know, I felt like kind of vulnerable.

11:26 I was eight months pregnant here

11:28 and I had somehow kept my pregnancy secret.

11:31 So this was the first like unveil.

11:33 And during the pandemic was when I had my first son

11:37 and I didn't see anybody.

11:39 So to actually like see my friends

11:41 and share this exciting good news in person

11:44 and be able to like see their reactions was really special.

11:47 So this night was a night I will never forget.

11:50 Last but not least, I can't imagine what it's gonna be.

11:54 Oh, this was a Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen look

11:59 for the Kering Foundation.

12:01 I love these pants so much.

12:02 You can't really tell it by the picture,

12:04 but the shoes are in the pants.

12:06 And so it's like these like endless stilt legs.

12:10 I love a pantsuit.

12:11 It makes me feel very like boss lady.

12:14 I like it.

12:15 Being back to work after having two little babies,

12:18 both makes me appreciate my job

12:21 and just the magic that I get to be a part of on set.

12:24 But also I love going home to my little guys

12:27 for my real life.

12:28 I feel very lucky.

12:29 I like my glamorous life and my less glamorous life.

12:32 I wrote the quote that Lee McQueen said to me,

12:45 "You wear the dress, the dress does not wear you."

12:49 Okay, Vogue, thank you so much for having me.

12:52 This has been my life and looks so far.

12:54 And I can't wait to see what the next pages will look like.

12:58 Okay, bye.

12:59 (upbeat music)

13:02 (upbeat music)

13:04 (upbeat music)

13:07 (upbeat music)

13:10 (upbeat music)

13:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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