Karlie Kloss: The Supermodel Who Rewrote the Rules

Who Is Karlie Kloss? The Woman Behind the Icon

There are supermodels, and then there is Karlie Kloss. A 40-time international Vogue cover girl, a tech entrepreneur, a nonprofit founder, a TV host, and a philanthropist — she is genuinely one of the most multi-dimensional public figures of her generation. Named one of TIME’s “100 Most Influential People” worldwide, Karlie Kloss has spent over a decade proving that beauty and brains are not mutually exclusive. Her story is one of relentless reinvention, and it all began in the most beautifully ordinary way imaginable.

Whether you’ve been following her since her runway days or you’ve stumbled onto her name through the enduring chatter about the Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift friendship saga, one thing becomes clear very quickly: this woman is far more than a pretty face on a magazine cover. She is a blueprint for what it looks like when a young woman refuses to be put in a box.

Karlie Kloss

Supermodel · Entrepreneur · Philanthropist

Personal information

Family & relationships

Education

Career & ventures

Accolades & recognition

Early Life & Background: From Chicago to the Catwalk

Karlie Elizabeth Kloss was born on August 3, 1992, in Chicago, Illinois, to Tracy Kloss, a freelance art director, and Kurt Kloss, an emergency physician. When she was just two years old, the family relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, where she would grow up alongside three sisters — older sister Kristine and twin younger sisters Kimberly and Kariann.

Anyone asking how old is Karlie Kloss today should know she turned 33 in August 2025, though she carries her age with the kind of effortless grace that makes it almost irrelevant. She grew up with a love for classical ballet, training seriously throughout her childhood years before fate had other plans for her long, elegant limbs.

Karlie attended Webster Groves High School in Missouri, where she was a cheerleader during her freshman year and graduated in 2011. It was a fairly normal Midwestern upbringing — the kind that, as she’s said in interviews, gave her a grounded perspective that the glittering world of fashion rarely provides on its own.

Her discovery story is the stuff of modeling legend. At just 13 years old, a representative from Elite Model Management spotted her at a local benefit runway show in 2005. Her photos were forwarded to New York, and by age 14 she had landed her first professional contract and was appearing on the cover of Scene Magazine in a spread titled “Almost Famous.” The title turned out to be prophetic — she would quickly become very famous indeed.

Karlie Kloss Height: The Supermodel’s Defining Feature

One of the most searched questions about her is simply: how tall is Karlie Kloss? The answer is 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm), and that extraordinary height — combined with ballet-trained posture and a powerful, fluid stride — became her signature. Ironically, it was the very reason she had to give up ballet in the first place; she grew too tall for the discipline she loved most as a child.

On the runway, that height became an asset that designers couldn’t resist. She was frequently chosen to close catwalk shows in dramatic gowns, a position of enormous prestige in the fashion world. Her walk became so iconic it earned its own nickname — the “panther walk” — described as powerful, precise, and deeply memorable, with a moody, sultry expression that photographers adored. Karlie Kloss height is not just a number; it became a brand identity.

Modelling Career: Rise to Global Stardom

Signing With Elite and the Breakout Years

After being discovered at 13, Karlie signed with Elite Model Management and quickly booked spreads in Abercrombie and other catalogs. By 2008, she had parted ways with Elite and signed with Next Management — a move that triggered a legal dispute between the two agencies over who could rightfully claim her, which was eventually settled out of court.

That same year, she walked an astonishing 64 runway shows across New York, Milan, and Paris — walking exclusively for Calvin Klein, closing for Marc Jacobs, and opening for Carolina Herrera, all at just 15 years old. In 2009, Vogue Paris named her one of the “Top 30 Models of the 2000s” before she had even finished high school. By her late teens, she had secured campaigns with Dior, Versace, Chanel, and countless other iconic houses, earning herself a place among the top-earning models in the world.

Victoria’s Secret Angel Status

Karlie Kloss first walked in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2011, but she officially became a Victoria’s Secret Angel in 2013 — the most coveted title in the modeling industry. Millions tuned in to the annual televised show, and Karlie was one of its brightest stars. She walked alongside Taylor Swift at the iconic 2014 Victoria’s Secret show in London, and it became one of the most talked-about moments of their friendship.

In 2015, however, she left. At the time, many were surprised — the role came with enormous visibility and an estimated $4 million annually at her peak. But Karlie was clear about her reasons: the brand’s messaging did not align with her feminist values. She has stated that her decision to leave was partly motivated by her beliefs — a move that, in retrospect, looks both brave and ahead of its time, given the serious scrutiny Victoria’s Secret faced in the years that followed.

Major Campaigns & 40 Vogue Covers

Even without the Angel wings, Karlie’s fashion career soared. By 2019, she had appeared on 40 international Vogue covers — a milestone that very few models in history have achieved. She continued commanding international runways and campaigns for brands ranging from Chanel and Dior to Marc Jacobs, Versace, L’Oréal Paris, Estée Lauder, Adidas, Warby Parker, and Frame Denim. In April 2018, she was officially announced as Estée Lauder’s newest global spokesmodel and brand ambassador, cementing her status as one of the most commercially powerful faces in the industry.

Education & Personal Reinvention: The NYU Chapter

Here’s where the story of Karlie Kloss becomes genuinely remarkable. In September 2015, just months after walking away from Victoria’s Secret at the height of her modeling career, she enrolled in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. This was not a PR move — it was a genuine intellectual pivot.

Her interest in technology had been sparked a year earlier. In 2014, inspired by tech entrepreneurs she had met through modeling connections, she attended a coding boot camp at NYC’s Flatiron School, just before New York Fashion Week. The experience lit a fire in her. She wanted to understand how tech was built, not just admire it from the outside. She stepped back from Victoria’s Secret and enrolled at NYU to study coding, entrepreneurship, and social impact — driven by a desire to build something that would outlast fashion trends.

It was a decision that surprised the fashion world but signaled something bigger: Karlie Kloss was not interested in being anyone’s ornament. She was building a legacy.

Entrepreneurial Ventures: Building a Business Empire

Kode With Klossy — Her Most Important Work

In April 2015, before she had even started at NYU, Karlie founded Kode With Klossy — a nonprofit providing free two-week summer coding camps for girls and non-binary teens aged 13 to 18. Camps are offered free of charge in over 25 cities across the United States, with participants applying for scholarships. The curriculum covers programming languages like Ruby, JavaScript, and Swift, and participants build fully functional mobile apps or websites by the end of the program.

The impact has been staggering. By 2025, the organization had built a community of nearly 11,000 young people in over 100 countries — a testament to what happens when a globally recognized name dedicates real resources, not just a press release, to a cause. Karlie’s Kode With Klossy work earned her covers on Fast Company and Forbes, and a spot on the TIME 100 list. It is, without question, her most meaningful contribution to the world so far.

In December 2025, she announced her debut picture book, Spaghetti Code: A Story About Problem-Solving, Pasta, and the Power of Big Ideas, inspired by the initiative.

Karlie’s Kookies — Fashion Week Meets Food

Back in 2012, Karlie collaborated with the beloved Momofuku Milk Bar restaurant chain to create Karlie’s Kookies, a special recipe sold during Fashion’s Night Out in New York. The charming part? Part of the proceeds were donated to FEED Projects, a children’s charity — with ten meals donated for every tin of cookies sold. It was a small but telling gesture: even at the height of her runway years, she was thinking about how to use her platform for good.

Magazine Acquisitions — The Media Mogul Move

Karlie is not just a face in magazines; she now owns them. In 2020, she led a group of investors in acquiring W Magazine, taking on a hands-on role in shaping the publication’s direction. Then, in November 2023, she acquired the British fashion magazine i-D from Vice Media Group and stepped into the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) — a title that very few former models have ever held at a major media brand. In March 2024, she and her husband Joshua Kushner revived Life Magazine for print and digital distribution through Bedford Media in partnership with Dotdash Meredith.

Television & Media: The Project Runway Years

In 2019, Karlie Kloss stepped into the spotlight in a new way when she became the host and executive producer of Project Runway on Bravo, replacing the legendary Heidi Klum. She said at the time that she “could not be more excited to host and produce a series that provides a platform to aspiring American designers as they pursue their creative and entrepreneurial dreams.”

Her run on the show spanned three seasons and produced some memorable television moments — including a viral clip in Season 18 where a contestant made a pointed joke about dinner “with the Kushners,” referring to the political family she had married into. Karlie handled it with composure, though the moment sparked widespread conversation about the unique pressures she navigated in public life.

So why did Karlie Kloss leave Project Runway? The departure came in April 2021 when Bravo confirmed she would not return as full-time host for Season 19, instead making only guest appearances. Multiple factors came together: she had welcomed her first child in March 2021, the show’s production format was shifting toward a rotating host model post-COVID, and Karlie’s own priorities had evolved significantly toward her tech education work and family life. It was not a dramatic exit — it was a woman choosing where to invest her time next.

Beyond Project Runway, she has also hosted Movie Night with Karlie Kloss on Freeform, served as a correspondent on Netflix’s Bill Nye Saves the World, and launched her own YouTube channel, Klossy, co-created with filmmaker Casey Neistat in 2015.

Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift: The Friendship, the Silence, and the Speculation

No profile of Karlie Kloss would be complete without addressing one of pop culture’s most dissected friendships. The story of Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift is one of warmth, public adoration, and eventual, unexplained distance — and it has fascinated fans for years.

How It All Began

The connection between Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss started in the most delightful way. In 2012, Taylor told Vogue in an interview that she loved Karlie Kloss and just wanted to bake cookies with her. Karlie saw the interview and tweeted back: “Your kitchen or mine?” They finally met in person at the 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and the friendship took off from there. The two were quickly inseparable — road trips, Met Gala preparations, red carpet appearances, cookie dates, and mutual Instagram tributes. In March 2015, they even appeared together on a joint Vogue cover story, gushing about their bond.

During the mid-2010s, taylor swift karlie kloss coverage was everywhere. They were the friendship goals the internet had appointed, and their chemistry was undeniable. Karlie even appeared in Taylor’s Bad Blood music video. At the 2014 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, Taylor performed live on the runway while Karlie strutted beside her — a moment that felt symbolic of everything their friendship represented: two incredibly accomplished young women cheering each other on at the top of the world.

When Did Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift Stop Being Friends?

The cracks first appeared publicly in 2016, when the pair stopped being photographed together with the same frequency. Taylor was navigating her highly publicized feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian — the same Kardashian family that Karlie had begun spending time with. Then came the moment that sent Swifties into a spiral: in Taylor’s Look What You Made Me Do music video in August 2017, a t-shirt bearing the names of her close friends was visible — but Karlie’s name was conspicuously absent, even though names like Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid, Blake Lively, and Lena Dunham made the cut.

The birthday post that year was noticeably brief compared to the heartfelt tributes of previous years. The friendship between Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift appeared to be cooling in real time. They were last publicly photographed together in 2018, when Karlie attended a Taylor Swift Reputation concert in Nashville. Taylor did not attend Karlie’s first wedding ceremony with Joshua Kushner in October 2018, nor the larger celebration in June 2019.

What Did Karlie Kloss Do to Taylor Swift?

This is the question that has circulated endlessly online: what did Karlie Kloss do to Taylor Swift? No single smoking gun has ever been confirmed, but several events have been pieced together by fans and outlets. Sources close to the pair have suggested that a tipping point came when Karlie, who reportedly had her own room at Taylor’s Tribeca penthouse, invited friends over for a party without asking Taylor’s permission. Taylor was reportedly furious about the incident and, according to a source cited by Page Six, “got upset over something crazy and then just alienated Karlie.”

The other widely cited factor is the Scooter Braun connection. Braun became Karlie’s manager, and Taylor’s feud with Braun — who acquired the masters of her first six albums when he purchased her former label, Big Machine Records, in 2019 — is one of the most well-documented disputes in recent music industry history. Karlie also developed closer ties to the Kardashians during this period, which further complicated things given Taylor’s history with that family.

Taylor has largely stayed silent on the matter, but fans pointed to lyrics from her 2020 album Evermore as a potential response — particularly the track It’s Time to Go, which features the line: “When the words of a sister come back in whispers / That prove she was not, in fact, what she seemed / Not a twin from your dreams.” Taylor had previously called Karlie her “twin” and “sister,” which many interpreted as the song being directed at their fallout.

Karlie, for her part, has largely dismissed the speculation. When asked by The New York Times in March 2018, she simply said: “Don’t believe everything you read.” She also took to social media at one point to post: “I will not allow the media to misconstrue my words. Taylor has always had my back and I will always have hers.”

Where Things Stand Now

What happened to Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss remains, officially, unconfirmed. But in August 2023, Karlie was spotted at Taylor’s Eras Tour in Los Angeles — initially in the regular stands before security moved her to the VIP section. She was seen singing along and filming performances on her phone. An eyewitness reported to Entertainment Tonight that after being escorted to the VIP section, the mood was warm. Sources suggested that whatever differences existed were, if not resolved, at least “water under the bridge.” In July 2024, Karlie publicly revealed she still listens to Taylor’s music — a small but notable gesture of goodwill. The two continue to occasionally like each other’s posts on Instagram. The full story of what happened between Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss may never be told publicly — and perhaps that’s exactly as both women want it.

Karlie Kloss’s Husband: Joshua Kushner

When people search for Karlie Kloss husband, they find a name attached to a great deal of context: Joshua Kushner, venture capitalist and founder of Thrive Capital, one of the most successful investment firms in Silicon Valley, with early investments in companies like Instagram and Stripe. Joshua is also the co-founder of Oscar Health and has a net worth estimated at around $2 billion.

Karlie and Joshua met in the summer of 2012 when she was just 19. They kept their relationship relatively private for years before Joshua proposed in upstate New York in July 2018 — one month after Karlie converted to Judaism, the faith Joshua was raised in. They married on October 18, 2018, in an intimate ceremony in upstate New York, with a larger celebration in Wyoming the following June.

The marriage has not been without public scrutiny. Joshua’s brother Jared Kushner is married to Ivanka Trump and served as a senior White House adviser during the Trump administration. This family connection led to relentless questioning about Karlie’s political values. She has been consistently clear: she and Joshua are Democrats. She voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, supported Joe Biden in 2020, wore a Biden-Harris face mask when voting by mail, and attended the March for Our Lives gun violence protest in Washington D.C. with Joshua in 2018. In one interview with British Vogue, she addressed the Kushner family connection directly, saying: “I choose to focus on the values that I share with my husband, and those are the same liberal values that I was raised with. It’s not been easy, but it’s worth it.”

Is Karlie Kloss Jewish? Yes — she converted to Judaism before their marriage and has spoken openly about that choice being a meaningful personal one.

The couple currently lives primarily in Malibu, California, having moved to a Wave House there in 2024, with properties also in New York City and Miami Beach.

Karlie Kloss Kids: Growing Her Family

For those wondering how many kids does Karlie Kloss have, the answer as of early 2026 is two — with a third on the way. Their first son, Levi Joseph Kushner, was born on March 11, 2021. Their second son, Elijah Jude Kushner, arrived on July 11, 2023. In January 2025, Karlie and Joshua announced they were expecting a third child, with an October 2025 due date. The family has described parenthood as one of the greatest joys of their lives.

Karlie Kloss Net Worth: What She’s Built

Karlie Kloss net worth is estimated at approximately $40 million as of 2025 — a figure built not just on modeling fees but on a diversified portfolio that includes brand partnerships, media investments, nonprofit work, and business ventures. In 2018 alone, she earned $14 million from her various endeavors, making her the second-highest-paid model in the world that year.

Her income streams today include ongoing brand partnerships with Estée Lauder and Adidas, revenue from her media acquisitions including i-D Magazine and W Magazine, speaking engagements and corporate diversity initiatives generated through Kode With Klossy, and angel investments. She is also an investor in the probiotics company Seed. Her husband’s $2 billion fortune is separate, and she has always been careful to ensure her professional identity stands independently from it.

Where Does Karlie Kloss Live?

People often ask: where does Karlie Kloss live? As of 2024, she and Joshua Kushner primarily reside in a Wave House in Malibu, California. They also maintain properties in New York City and Miami Beach, reflecting the bicoastal rhythm of their professional and social lives.

Philanthropy & Activism: Using the Platform for Real Change

Women in STEM

The crown jewel of Karlie’s philanthropic work remains Kode With Klossy. What started as a single coding camp has grown into a global community of nearly 11,000 young people across more than 100 countries. By consistently showing up — not just lending her name to a cause but building infrastructure around it — she has become a genuine advocate for closing the gender gap in technology.

Reproductive Rights

In 2022, Karlie launched the Gateway Coalition, a nonprofit providing support to abortion clinics in the Midwestern United States, with a focus on ensuring access to reproductive healthcare for women in underserved communities. At a time when reproductive rights were increasingly under legal threat in the US, she did not stay quiet.

Legacy & Impact: The Blueprint for Modern Reinvention

What does Karlie Kloss mean to popular culture in 2026? She is proof that personal reinvention is not just possible — it is profitable, purposeful, and powerful. She walked away from Victoria’s Secret before it became unfashionable to stay. She enrolled in college while earning millions. She founded a nonprofit before nonprofits became PR currency for celebrities. She became the CEO of a media brand and revived a historic magazine. And she navigated one of the most publicly scrutinised marriages in celebrity culture with consistent grace and clarity of values.

The story of Karlie Kloss — from a 13-year-old spotted at a charity runway show in the Midwest, to a global supermodel, to a tech education activist, to a media mogul and mother of three — is one of the most compelling in modern public life. She did not just follow the script of what a model was supposed to do. She rewrote it entirely.

Also Read: Oprah Winfrey: The Complete Story of America’s Most Influential Host and Television Producer