Kylie Jenner Reveals Her Skin Secrets, the Hair Color She’ll Never Try, and Why Modeling’s Not in Her Future

It seems odd at first to pair a 17-year-old with Nip+Fab, a beauty brand best known for some rather extreme (if not sinister) sounding products such as Viper Venom Wrinkle Fix and Bee Sting Fix Lifting Mask. Then again, Kylie Jenner isn’t your average 17-year-old battling acne (though the company has products that address that concern, too). The teen grew up literally in front of our eyes, with reality-television cameras capturing her every awkward adolescent move. And like her older sisters, she’s quickly become one of the most-watched women on social media, with selfies generating speculation, as well as millions of likes. Here, the teen with a new skincare contract to her name schools us in the beauty lessons she’s learned thus far, the hair colors she’ll never try, and why she's leaving the catwalk to Kendall.

Keep it simple: Despite having access to an arsenal of eye creams and exfoliators, Jenner keeps her skincare routine relatively scaled back: “I try to wash my face every night before I go to sleep, and sunscreen is a must,” she said. “Khloé taught me to always use sunscreen on my hands and face to protect my skin, and my mom taught me to always stay hydrated.” Kardashian/Jenner beauty rule number one: Should you find yourself cruising around L.A. in a flashy whip, keep your complexion under cover and a water bottle parked in the cup holder.
Make moisturizing a must: Whether she’s prepping for a photo shoot or a selfie, Jenner said that hydration is key. “I moisturize a lot,” she noted. Her go-to product: Nip+Fab Dragon’s Blood Fix Plumping Serum. “I always have it with me when I fly.” As for the secret to her streak-free California glow: “I get a lot of spray tans, so the Yoga Blend Body Scrub is nice and relaxing.”
Show your true colors: “I’d probably never go pink or purple [when it comes to my hair] because blue is my thing,” she said. “Other than that, I’m extremely open to changing my style and trying different things.”
Fake it till you make it: Sure, there’s some controversy surrounding Jenner’s lush lips, but the teen attributes her mouth to nothing more than some makeup magic: “I use every color lip liner,” she said. “Everyone thinks that I stick to one kind, but I just love to make them super-prominent.”
Keep it in the family: When you spend every day in the spotlight, making your NYFW debut on your brother-in-law’s runway for Adidas Originals is NBD: “It’s Kanye [West], so I wasn’t nervous, but it was a lot of fun,” she said. “I’m not a model and I don’t aspire to be one—it was just some family fun.” It looks like Kendall is safe from any sisterly competition on the catwalk. As for the front row, that’s another story entirely.

Primary Source: Red, Blue, and Yellow All Over, 5 ways to wear them together.

Spring is in the air and we’re ready to ditch our winter neutrals. Blame it on the Fall ’15 runways, which were bursting with color (see Rodarte, Balmain, Miu Miu), or all of the super-saturated primary hues we’ve been seeing on the streets. Classic shades of blue, yellow, and red make a statement on their own but look even better together (as proven by Piet Mondrian). See five of our favorite outfits in our Look of the Day slideshow, above

Natural Hair Makes a Comeback on the Runways of Paris and Milan

Some of the most-talked-about beauty moments of the season have come via black models whose natural hair has taken center stage. Dominican newcomer Lineisy Montero stole the show at Prada with her short Afro adorned with a bejeweled barrette, and at Balenciaga, Nykhor Paul, Ajak Deng, Grace Bol, and Mari Agory all wore close-cropped natural hair with Alexander Wang’s demure collection. Montero brought the style to Céline’s Paris catwalk, where she was joined by fellow model Karly Loyce, who sported a beautiful, larger-than-life ’fro. These looks stood out when compared with the lineup of pin-straight ponytails and center-parted waves, but they also differed from how we typically see black models on the runways. Relaxed hair, often enhanced with extensions, has become the norm, and the majority of models from supers like Naomi Campbell and Joan Smalls onward wear some variation of the look. “It’s very unusual to see a girl with a natural Afro texture these days,” says Redken creative director and the hairstylist behind Prada and Céline, Guido Palau. “Most girls have their hair relaxed or a lot of hair extensions or it has to be blown out to ‘fit in’ with the look of the other girls.”
The popularity of weaves and straightened styles is a fraught issue, with complex sociopolitical implications—the natural hair movement has been discussed by everyone from Chris Rock in the documentary Good Hair to Oprah Winfrey in the pages of her eponymous magazine. For a model, however, the choice between natural and relaxed often has a lot to do with image. Agencies frequently give new models makeovers, shaping diamonds in the rough with career-altering haircuts. “I always brushed my hair in a ponytail,” says Montero. “The president of my mother agency, Sandro Guzman, told me that he wanted to cut it and do a natural Afro. When I saw it in the mirror, I loved it. This was all done before the final night of the Ossygeno Models Competition, where I ended up being one of the winners.”

For Montero, the switch to a short ’fro has resulted in choice bookings and an elevated profile, but fashion’s acceptance of natural hair has been a long time coming. “The thing Good Hair got wrong was that hair extensions weren’t about wanting to look white, they were about wanting to stay in the game,” says activist and Diversity Coalition founder Bethann Hardison. “The extensions really started in the ’90s. There were a lot of girls whose hair was damaged because the hairstylists didn’t have the training to understand black hair. As a model, you’re asked to switch your look back and forth and deal with chemicals or heat that do a number on your hair. Back then, if they couldn’t figure out how to style a girl’s hair properly, it was the model who was considered difficult, not the hairstylist.”
Even with fashion biased in favor of straight hair, there have still been many models who’ve proudly sported their natural locks. “Some girls have that natural, bohemian spirit and a ’fro looks great on them,” says Hardison, citing names like Rose Cordero, Deng, and herself as examples. “When I came on the scene, I had a short ’fro and big eyes. I didn’t look like what was popular at the time, but I was being myself, and that was what [designers] responded to.” According to Palau, it’s that same sense of authenticity and confidence that seems to be drawing designers toward this new generation of natural wonders. “Mrs. Prada responded to [Montero’s] natural beauty and wanted to keep her exactly as she was.”

5 Supermodel Styling Tips From Joan Smalls

No one makes a pair of leggings look sexier than Joan Smalls. Now you can steal the supermodel’s head-turning style because Smalls’ denim collaboration with True Religion has finally arrived, featuring cropped sweatshirts, bralettes, high-waisted briefs, and leggings. It’s Smalls’ first-ever capsule collection and she participated on both sides of the camera––as design collaborator and face of the women’s Spring campaign.

Sueño, Spanish for “dream,” is a theme running through the collection, and it’s a word that holds particular significance for Smalls, who originally hails from Puerto Rico. Smalls told Style.com, “I remember coming to New York and having the dream of making it big, having a career, traveling.”

Fast-forward a few years and those dreams are a reality. How did her modeling experience influence the design collaboration? “You have a better understanding of materials, how they drape and fall,” Smalls said. Each piece from the collection has a story, and the model shared them with us here, along with her styling tips, so you can lift the off-duty-model look, too.

Street-Style Shopping: The New Nautical

Mad for Plaid: Reworking the ’90s Staple

Bare-Naked Ladies: How Nudity Became Fall’s Hot Topic on the Runways

Feminism has been a hot-button issue in pop culture lately—whether through the lens of a TV show like Girls or a moment such as Beyoncé’s VMA appearance, when she performed with the word feminist spelled out in bold letters behind her. In fashion, the topic has manifested in a myriad of ways, from Chanel’s Spring ’15 protest march-cum-runway show to an abundance of “Free the Nipple”-type nudity on the Fall ’15 catwalks. “I think with all the minimalism and androgyny fashion has experienced in the past seasons, designers are exploring more the sexuality of women and expressing the beauty of the human form,” mused MyTheresa’s Justin O’Shea on the abundance of T-and-A in New York, London, Milan, and Paris.
The subject of nudity started trending on the very first day of the Fall collections at the Rachel Comey show with a performance by Tracee Ellis Ross as Madame Hiver, a life coach whose proclamations included, “Your vagina wants to sing!” and “It’s just a vagina. It’s a scary thing, isn’t it?” A week later in London, Christopher Kane put said private parts, as well as other parts of the female and male anatomy, on display in a series of guipure lace dresses showing intertwined nude figures. “I wanted a feeling of attraction and sensuality in the collection, something sexual but not grotesque,” Kane told Style.com of the designs inspired by figure drawings made by his studio. “It reflects that sense of togetherness, of male and female in an almost molecular and mechanical attraction, as well as a more classical sensuality—both feelings that I wanted to come across this season.”
In Paris, nakedness really caught on, with breast-shaped bags at Lemaire, topless models at Jacquemus, and Lida Fox power-strutting down the Saint Laurent runway with a single breast exposed by her one-shouldered dress. “That dress was actually created the last time I did a worldwide exclusive for Saint Laurent for Spring ’14, but it wasn’t used in the collection in the end,” Fox said. “When they brought it back this time, I was so happy and then of course elated when I found out I got to wear it! We always called it the mono-boob dress,” she went on, confirming that indeed the dress is meant to be worn with one breast exposed. “I think that now was the perfect time for the dress, though, with the whole Free the Nipple movement and the increasing exposure of feminism.”
Others in the industry agree, citing the abundance of nudity as a pro-feminist act that exalts the power of the female body. “I think in this case it’s also really about female confidence and the fact that we’re more confident with our bodies, and maybe this is a more proactive approach,” said Avenue 32 founder Roberta Benteler. “Maybe this is us saying, ‘We are the ones who say yes to nakedness, as opposed to being objectified on Page Three,’” she continued, referencing the British tabloid The Sun’s habit of publishing nude pictures of women. “In general, I think it’s all about the ’70s at the moment,” Benteler added. “It’s that sort of ’70s free spirit, about female empowerment, sex, and rock ’n’ roll. In that sense I also think it’s not asexual; it’s very sexy. Sexy is back, the big hair is back, the makeup is back, the platform shoes are back, the miniskirt is back, and it all ties in with that. It’s about confidence.”
Philosophical discussions aside, will clothes like this sell? It seems that buyers, for the most part, are unfazed. “I’m not freaked out about it because there is always a more commercial version available in the showroom,” Benteler said. As for pieces that depict the human form, from Lemaire’s “boobs and ass” leather bag to Kane’s orgy dresses, O’Shea explained that while these pieces might not translate to retail in a “commercial way, there is always a customer for statement pieces.”
Still, when the question as to whether MyTheresa would advocate for wearing one’s Jacquemus pants sans shirt was asked, O’Shea laughed, “I am no prude, but in this case it’s not a styling tip I would be promoting. At least not in public…”
Are you pro or con Fall’s bare-naked ladies? See 12 statement-making nudes from the Fall collections in the slideshow, and weigh in below.

The Best Street Style From Fashion Week Tokyo

Zimbabwean fashion defying all odds

Zimbabwe Fashion Weekend Takes The Stage

The Politics of Black Hair

Yeezy does it! Kris Jenner gives daughter Kim Kardashian a run for her money as she mimics her dance moves at Kanye gig

 

A Royal-ly good time: Kelly Rowland rubs shoulders with Lorde at the Chloe show during Paris Fashion Week

Khloe Kardashian and French Montana return to LA from romantic beach holiday together... after receiving floral bouquet from her on-again rapper beau

She's got legs! Claire Danes shows off her gams in blue and black mini-dress as she talks up Homeland during panel discussion