Kylie Jenner launching ‘quiet luxury’ fashion label: ‘Stepping up her game’

Kylie Jenner is rivalling her famous sisters Kim and Khloe Kardashian with talk that she’s preparing to launch her own fashion label.

The 26-year-old makeup mogul is stepping away cosmetics and signing with Jens and Emma Grede, the husband-and-wife duo behind Kim’s mega-successful Skims and Khloe’s Good American denim brand, reports Page Six.

“All the girls each have their own vision,” an insider told the outlet. “They inspire and whip each other up. They’re all so different and independent, but they give each other a ton of advice.”

Towards the end of 2019, Jenner sold more than half of her cosmetics and skincare brand, Kylie Cosmetics, to global beauty company Coty for US$600 million (NZ$1.02 billion), which valued the company at $1.2b (NZ$2.03b).

In other news, Kim’s shapewear and lingerie brand was valued at a whopping $4b (NZ$6.77b) in July – and she’s also in discussions with Coty to buy back her minority stake that she sold in her beauty business, SKKN.

Jenner was barely a teenager when she and her older sister, now-model Kendall Jenner, released their eponymous clothing line, Kendall + Kylie, in 2012. The fashion brand was a collaboration with PacSun, but the licence deal reportedly ended at the beginning of this year.

“Kylie has always been in fashion, and she’s stepping up her game,” a source in the fashion industry said.

“She’s always had a very clear vision.”

It seems the youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan is taking on her older sister Kim as the style icon of the family, having modelled for French Couture label Jean Paul Gaultier’s summer campaign, being the new face of Dolce & Gabbana’s latest eyewear and handbag range and planning another big campaign in the nearby future, reports Page Six.

Last September, the Kylie Cosmetics founder wowed at Paris Fashion Week, donning white briefs and a tank top to the Loewe show, with many fans drawing comparisons to Julia Fox. Next, she showed up in a plunging Schiaparelli gown to the fashion house’s presentation, before wearing a sheer lace catsuit at the Business of Fashion gala.

In January, the star made front page news when she wore an incredibly lifelike lion dress while attending the Schiaparelli show in the French capital.

“She’s gotten a ton of validation around what she’s wearing and who she’s partnering with,” said the insider.

Kim has been candid about her style journey and how it was affected by her highly publicised divorce from rapper Kanye West, admitting last year: “I definitely see what I like, but I’ve never really been the visionary.”

“Kanye would come in and be like, ‘You should do your hair like this. You should do your makeup like this.’ That’s his love language, it’s clothes,” she said.

“I’m trying to figure out, who am I in the fashion world, or who am I by myself?”

Jenner’s future partnership with Gredes was announced by Puck’s fashion journalist Lauren Sherman.

And, despite speculation that it will be a “fast fashion” brand, industry sources have stressed that the label won’t be cheap – and will be absolutely nothing like China-based giant Shein, which has gained bad publicity for its poor working conditions, copying of independent designers’ items, and devastating impact on the environment.

Instead, Jenner is expected to churn out a range that skews to “quiet luxury”.

“They need to distance their brands from unsustainable and unethical practices, [and not] produce clothes in such volume that if they don’t sell them all they get stuck in landfills,” one well-placed fashion insider said.

“Quite rightly, they don’t want to be tarred with that fast fashion brush. No one does – except Love Island contestants, who will take whatever deal they can get.”

The relatively high price points of both Kim’s Skims and Khloe’s Good American reflect the family’s commitment when it comes to their brands’ quality and sustainability.

Despite the family’s similar ventures into the fashion world, a family close source has insisted: “The girls are not competitive. They’re so supportive of each other.”

And Kris, the momager of the family, boasts a “more is more” philosophy when it comes to her nepotism-founded business deals.

“Working with my kids on their brands is such a blessing,” she said.