Kylie Jenner shares origin of ‘King Kylie’ persona

Kylie Jenner is taking fans back to the very beginning of her iconic King Kylie era.

In a new Life in Looks session with Vogue on Wednesday, Oct. 22, the 28-year-old mogul flipped through a collection of her most memorable fashion moments and revealed exactly when her bold and colourful phase began.

Jenner pointed to her very first runway appearance, which she described as the spark that started her love for experimenting with hair color. 

“My first runway show. It was for Avril Lavigne's clothing line at the time,” the Kylie Cosmetics founder said, recalling the 2011 show from her teenage years. 

“This feels like a lifetime ago, but I love [it] to this day. I remember I wasn't nervous at all, I was so confident.”

The photo showed a young Jenner confidently posing at the end of the runway in a black mini dress with a lace top and a tulle skirt. 

Her nails were short and painted black, and her look was completed with smoky eyeliner and her now-famous pink-tipped hair.

“I loved my pink tips,” she said. 

“This probably started honestly, my love for colored hair. Because it wasn't real hair dye. They put, like, chalk in my hair or something, and I was obsessed.”

Jenner laughed as she remembered another moment from the same show, where she walked down the runway flashing rockstar hand signs and sticking her tongue out. 

“And then my family's, like, cheering for me. This is like the beginning of King Kylie,” she said.

Over a decade later, the Khy CEO has officially revived that era with a new collection celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Kylie Cosmetics. 

Reflecting on her fearless experimentation with hairstyles during that time, Jenner told Harper’s Bazaar earlier this year, “I changed my hair color like once a week and cut my hair off and then put a wig on or put extensions in. It’s just a part of who I am.”

For Jenner, that moment on the runway didn’t just launch her confidence, it defined the creative, ever-evolving persona that fans came to know as “King Kylie.”