Fashion’s latest supermodel, Kendall Jenner, takes command of the pages of Vogue just days after returning from a jaunt to Australia with sister Kylie promoting their fashion line Forever New.
Kendall continues her fashion world ascent on the heels of her first-time strut on the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show runway earlier this month. Industry insiders said she handled the pressures of that career high-water mark with aplomb. Victoria’s Secret casting director said Kendall joined the ultimate Angel squad as a professional, not a dilettante. She’s proven herself as a model, he said.
The proof is in the pudding with Kendall’s stellar aplomb on display in the Vogue December issue, and this is not your Grandma’s sugar plum vision, kiddies. Or George Balanchine’s either. This vision emanates from the, let’s face it, truly bizarre mind of Victorian English writer Lewis Carroll as recast by the Internet age.
An Alice for the Internet Age
It’s Kendall holding her own against surreally-clad cast members from the musical wonder.land. That’s wonder.land as in Alice Through the Looking Glass and down the rabbit hole.
wonder.land is the London’s National Theatre soon-to-open retelling of the Lewis Carroll 150-year-old tale “Alice in Wonderland.”
And the rabbit-hole Internet portal to wonder.land is imagined by Blur and Gorillaz front man Damon Albarn. Albarn is crafting songs and melody for the musical to match the infectious energy of his work with Blur.
If that doesn’t tell you all you need to know about wonder.land, consider that the National’s artistic director, Rufus Norris, is staging the production. His recent work included David Hare’s adaptation of Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Everyman, with Chiwetel Ejiofor.
But let’s not stray too far from the Vogue spread, where the 5 ft., 10 in., just turned 20-year-old brunette Kendall portrays Alice. She’s a stunning blonde in “Kendall Jenner Is in wonder.land in the Most Fantastical Looks of Fall”.
She’s not just displaying fall fashions from big names such as Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane and Dior Haute Couture. She’s making sure that the viewer’s eye is not totally distracted by the hallucinogenic costumes served up a theatrical designer Katrina Lindsay.
Lindsay’s costumes are marvelous, from the iridescent Caterpillar to the Dodo to the cute as buttons but edgy Tweedledum and Tweedledee. How could you not get lost in all that surreal wit?
Kicking Some White Rabbit Ass
But Kendall, standing tall or kicking White Rabbit ass, demands that you see the clothes that she wears. While it’s Vogue and designs that Kendall models are certainly edgy enough for real life, they don’t hold a candle to the fever-dream theatrics of Lindsay.
But when Kendall wears these real clothes, they don’t lack for a fashion defender.
You may even notice that some designs are actually pretty, such as the Marc Jacobs white lace over boy shorts dress that typifies the current transparency trend in gowns. You may love the red leather moto jacket teamed with skirt and boots from Louis Vuitton.
You may want to emulate Cressida Bona and wear the blue dress with boots from Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane out to a mud-splattered Glastonbury music festival of your own. Whatever.
It’s the Kendall Jenner aplomb plus bubbly-bombshell-next-door that will keep your focus on the Miu Miu, Proenza Schouler and Alexander Wang creations she models.
Good timing, Vogue! Ms. Jenner continues to rise.
