In general, Kendall Jenner enjoys meeting her fans at personal appearances, as she did Tuesday night at Sephora’s Fifth Avenue store.
Just don’t ask her about the time the SWAT team had to show up to extricate her from a Long Island shopping center due to overzealous fans. “I’m kind of used to the crowds,” she said. “But I’ve been in situations where they get a little out of control. At the Long Island one, we shut down an entire mall and had to be escorted out by the SWAT team. The fire department came, the police department came. When it gets out of control like that, it’s a little scary, but in general appearances don’t faze me.”
The poised 20-year-old, who is the face of Estée Lauder and its new The Estée Edit brand, found the crowd at Sephora a bit more hospitable. The Estée Edit line is exclusive to the beauty specialty chain.
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After teasing the personal appearance all day on social media, including Snapchat, Periscope, Instagram and Twitter), Jenner — clad in a strapless black Balmain jumpsuit and sky-high silver heels — noted that in general, Instagram is her favorite. “I like taking and posting pictures, and social media is an awesome platform for something like this. Any time that I can have a voice, I take that opportunity. Also, I love letting people see a little bit of my personal life.”
While some fans freeze up and can’t say a word around Jenner, others ask inappropriate questions. “There are always one or two fans who are really ballsy and spit out some things,” she said. She gracefully sidesteps such moments: “You can find your way around it,” she said. “They definitely have a lot of confidence to ask some of those things.”
Of The Estée Edit, Jenner said, “It’s a fresh, fun line. Of course, I love my palette [Jenner created a $48 color palette that is already shaping up to be one of the line’s bestsellers], and I love the Lip Flips — you can change the color of your lipstick darker or brighter immediately.” Jane Hertzmark Hudis, a group president of Estée Lauder Cos. Inc., noted that both the palette and the Lip Flips are already shaping up to be bestsellers, as are Flash Photo Gloss and Beam Team. “We’re also selling a lot of blush — it’s having a moment,” Hudis said.
Fans started lining up at 11 p.m. Monday night to score one of the coveted 100 wristbands allowing them to meet and pose with Jenner. “I think that’s amazing and I’m saying thank you,” Jenner said. The bands were gone within a few minutes of the store’s 9 a.m. opening, noted Hudis. With several hundred fans outside the door, literally eight- and 10-deep and crushed up against the windows during the appearance, a plan to have Jenner spray-paint graffiti on the interior of the Sephora window was scrapped at the last minute.
Jenner also kept busy during New York and Paris Fashion Weeks, where she walked in such shows as Marc Jacobs, Chanel and Balmain. “I walked a few shows I’d never walked before, so that was exciting,” she said. Favorites? In Paris, they included Chanel, a perennial favorite of Jenner’s, as well as Balmain.
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Jenner also designs an apparel and accessories line with younger sister Kylie, which is sold in Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and other upscale retailers. “Kylie and I, since we were little, have been joined at the hip, and to work together was natural,” said Jenner, who’s also proud of her younger sister’s success in the lip category. “We have similar taste in fashion, so it’s easy to work with her.”
In fact, Jenner says its her family that keeps her grounded. “Finding time for my family, my friends and myself is really important, because if I don’t, I’ll start to go crazy and that’s the last thing I want,” she said. “It’s not always easy, but sometimes you have to push for yourself and make it happen.”
