How Kylie Jenner’s romance has broken the ‘Kardashian curse’ & one-upped sister Kim who ‘cried in the loos’ over snub
THE Kardashian clan are no strangers to sitting in the front row at the most fabulous fashion shows.
But I gasped when images of Kylie Jenner posing on the Frow at Chanel’s Haute Couture show landed on my desk earlier this week.
I wasn’t wowed by her cropped cream jacket and pleated mini skirt co-ord in the luxury brand’s signature tweed, nor by her small, iconic quilted bag or classic pumps.
I was wowed by the fact that she was there.
Being at a Chanel runway show at Paris Fashion Week may not seem like a big deal, but, let me tell you, in the world of fashion it is a HUGE deal.
Not only was Kylie in attendance, but she was also seated on the coveted front row — something her sisters have never achieved. This signals that she has finally been accepted by the fashion elite.
But could her boyfriend, Timothee Chalamet have something to do with it?
Truth be told, the “in” at Chanel is likely to have come from the half-French actor, in a round about way, at least.
The 29-year-old, one of the most highly regarded actors of his generation, has been nominated for everything from the Oscars to Golden Globes, and is Kylie’s ticket to the top.
The two started dating in 2023 and while they initially kept their romance under wraps, more recently they have been less shy about being seen together.
Kylie and Timothee have been spotted out and about on numerous occasions, including at the US Open tennis final last September, and the Golden Globes this month — which provided Kylie with a gereat opportunity to rub shoulders with Hollywood royalty.
Credit where it’s due, Kylie is a success in her own right.
She has made more than a billion dollars off the back of her cosmetics empire and has an army of dedicated fans who follow her every move.
But I can’t help but think that wildly successful actor Timothee, currently very watchable as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, has given her a little leg up, even if unintentionally.
Timothee has the clout that Chanel respects — someone who is in the top tier of their industry, and that as a result has elevated Kylie. So why is her appearance at Paris Fashion Week so significant, you may ask?
Make no mistake, being sat on the front row is so important that many A-list stars will shun a fashion show altogether unless they snag it
Make no mistake, being sat on the front row is so important that many A-list stars will shun a fashion show altogether unless they snag it.
Prestige and snobbery
Sure, Kylie, 27, is no stranger to Fashion Week, or even the real elite event, Couture Week.
Remember her on the catwalk in the famous Schiaparelli lion’s head dress in 2023 that turned heads?
Those were her baby steps into the big leagues.
The truth is that, for a while, she’s been at the top of the list for many of fashion’s respected brands, including Jean Paul Gaultier, Balmain and Loewe.
And she closed the runway for Coperni at Disneyland last October.
But Chanel? Chanel is different.
Chanel is history, it is elegance, prestige and class — with snobbery chucked in for good measure.
The brand packs its front row with those who are at the top of the game in their professional field, be it fashion editors, singers, actresses or models.
Reality stars have, until now, been considered beneath that, including the members of her family, despite their wide-reaching fame
Kylie’s big sister, Kim Kardashian, has been striving her whole life to be accepted by fashion’s elite yet she has never bagged herself a pew at Chanel.
In fact, Karl Lagerfeld, the man who famously was at the helm of Chanel for 36 years, didn’t care too much for Kim, if reports are to be believed.
He once even made her cry.
They met in 2013 when Karl was booked as a photographer for industry mag The CR Fashion Book.
Even Vogue breathlessly declared Kylie had broken ‘the Kardashian curse’ with her Frow appearance at Chanel this week
Kim heard that the Chanel boss gifted its world-renowned handbags to models, but Karl actually handed one of the brand’s prized purses to her mum, Kris Jenner, who had arrived on the set of the photoshoot very on-message, dripping in Chanel from head-to-toe.
She’s ‘broken the Kardashian curse’
After the snub, Kim later admitted the embarrassment made her run to the bathroom and start “hysterically crying”.
And when she was robbed at gunpoint in Paris three years later, Karl said he wasn’t “surprised” about the ordeal, sniping: “You cannot display your wealth and then be surprised that some people want to share it with you”, and “Image-wise, I think it’s very bad”.
Ouch.
Kylie’s other sister Kendall did, however, manage to get her foot in the door at Chanel — but only as a hired model.
The 29-year-old made her catwalk debut for the brand in 2015, also at Couture Week, and also managed to swing momager Kris a ticket to watch.
Despite Kris’s somewhat cringey tactics to try and rub shoulders with fashion’s finest, the style crowd have now embraced her youngest daughter.
Even Vogue breathlessly declared Kylie had “broken the Kardashian curse” with her Frow appearance this week at Chanel.
Not only did the make-up mogul bag the hottest ticket in town, she was reportedly gifted more than £100K worth of designer gear from the French fashion house.
In an Instagram post to her 395 MILLION followers — yes, you read that right — she shared that Chanel had sent more than 30 handbags and other accessories to her hotel room for her to use as she pleased.
So why, after years of the famous family trying to claw their way in, did Chanel choose Kylie?
Is it her gigantic retinue of 452 million followers when her TikTok crew is added to that Insta army?
If there’s a product to be flogged, chances are she can influence her highly engaged audience to part with their cash.
But no, when you’re a brand with the cachet of Chanel, that sort of social media strategy isn’t necessary.
Or is it her entrepreneurial success? At 19 she became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire due to Kylie Cosmetics. Sadly no, it’s more likely linked to who she is dating.
Kylie’s association with megastar Timothee is not too dissimilar from Kim rising up the ranks when she was with now ex-husband Kayne West.
Kim has always been open about how much performer Kanye taught her about fashion and how grateful she is to him.
When she won The Fashion Icon award at the 2021 People’s Choice Awards she said: “Thank you to Kanye for really introducing me to the fashion world.”
It seems history could be repeating itself for Kylie.
Before their marriage crashed and burned, Kim and Kanye even got approval from notorious ice-queen and editor of American Vogue, Anna Wintour, landing the cover of the fashion bible in 2014.
But Kylie already has a British Vogue cover under her diamond-embellished Chanel chain belt, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets the call from Wintour’s office for the US version sooner than later.
Being embraced by one of the world’s top luxury brands is a seismic event for Kylie, and can’t be ignored by the likes of Wintour.
So if Kylie’s new strategy is to put her romance with Timothee to work by being more public about their love, I say she should go for it.
In the fickle world of high- end fashion, it can only open doors — or, of course, land her one of the highly prized seats on the Frow.