The social media star and entrepreneur spoke on her business, the newest season of 'KUWTK' and how her hubby changed her style game forever at the 'Business of Fashion's' West Coast summit.
Kim Kardashian West dished on all things KKW Beauty, the upcoming season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians and Kanye West's major influence on her style at the BoF West Summit at Westfield Century City on Monday.
The social media star was joined by her mom and manager extraordinaire, Kris Jenner, onstage as two of the keynote speakers at the industry event, where the future of fashion and beauty businesses was the topic of conversation.
Kim was head-to-toe chic in a white Jacquemus shirt-and-skirt combo with long wavy tresses and glowing skin, while Kris made a statement in a graphic Akris pantsuit.
The two sat down with BoF's editor-in-chief, Imran Amed, to discuss Kim's rise to the top as a savvy entrepreneur as well as her influence on the beauty industry and the creative freedom of running your own company on social media.
"I don't really look at the traditional forms of what I'm seeing in the magazines," Kim, 37, said. "I'm just kind of doing what I want to do and I've always been really confident in the image that I want to put out there. When you have your own business, you can 100 percent control it. You can choose the photographer and the images and the look and every last detail you want to do. I've always done what has felt right and feels good and have not really worried about what I think the consumer wants, but instead guide them with what I want. I think if you have your own business and it's run by social media, you can have the power to do that."
Kim revealed one of her early beauty inspirations and how she was thrilled to find a woman who looked like her to emulate -- a role she embodies now for many women.
"When Salma Hayek came on the scene, I was so excited there was someone that I felt like, even though we are not the same nationality, I looked similar to and that was someone I would go to for beauty advice. I remember that time it was prom and I wanted to figure out what hairstyle I wanted, so I would look at her red carpet looks."
As the mastermind behind the Kardashian-Jenner empire, Kris offered her advice on being proactive and creating a successful business.
"If someone says no, you’re talking to the wrong person. So just never give up and if you have an idea and you feel passionate about doing that as a business, really make a commitment. Let’s figure out how to do it and let’s roll up our sleeves and find somebody that shares the same joy. It really gives me incredible joy to be able to find these different things the girls like to do and go out there and figure out a way to do it."
Kim is undoubtedly a fashion darling, always decked out in the best designer wares, but it wasn't easy for the mom of three to be taken seriously by the industry at first. But luckily, her husband stepped in and helped her find her way.
"I always thought I had really good style until I met my husband and he told me that I had the worst style," Kim admitted. "He was really nice about it and cleaned out my whole closet. I probably had 250 pairs of shoes and when we were done cleaning it out, I had two pairs left and I cried. We went to the Laker game and my closet was filled back up with all new stuff. There were racks of clothes of designers I have never heard of before like Lanvin and Givenchy. I didn’t know that then. I kept everything because it was really sentimental to me. He had all these fashion books and one by Carine Roitfeld and said, 'One day Carine will style you,' and I was like, 'Yeah right, I don’t know who this is.' Now, she’s one of my good friends. I wanted to learn. I wasn’t offended when he said that. When he did that he wanted to teach me."
Kim later made her way to Paris and began to connect with designers like Riccardo Tisci (formally of Givenchy and currently at Burberry) and Olivier Rousteing of Balmain, who now see her as their muse.
"I went to Paris and started meeting with these people and no one would dress me at the beginning. We would finally get a little in and Riccardo would dress me. He was the first person to really take a chance on me and he would teach me so much about the fits and cuts and how I should wear things. And then I became really close with Olivier. None of the samples would fit me, so they started to design things that were more curvy and that would fit someone who had more of my body type."
Kim and Kris also spilled some secrets on what to expect from the upcoming season 15 of KUWTK, revealing there was a "major blowout" that is "strung out over the first three episodes."
Do they think the show will ever stop?
"We're going to be here forever!" Kris half-joked. "North gets married! I used to say that about Kylie when she was 10."
"Season 17, Kylie has a baby!" Kim added. "And then we all looked at each other, like, that just happened."
See how Kim and Kylie had a matching sister moment in Yeezy in the video below.
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