Kat Von D Steps Away From Beauty Brand Because She No Longer ‘Fits In’
Influencer culture is partly to blame.
Kat Von D has recently made the announcement that she is stepping down from her beauty brand after 12 years. She is passing it on to her partner’s Kendo Brands, who she has been with for the past 11 years and has recently spoke in an episode of the ‘Second Life’ podcast about her decision.
The birth of her son, the launch of her vegan shoe line and her upcoming album have all been some reasons for the move. She has been struggling to balance everything and give her maximum effort to the beauty line.
She mentioned the brand's history and said she didn’t know what to expect when Sephora first set up a meeting with her. Von D has always loved makeup, but says it was never about beauty for her. It was more about self-expression.
Saying she has always been an ‘outsider’ with an alternative style, she never felt like she belonged and it was only when she discovered punk music that she found a place where others were okay with ‘not fitting in’ and being ‘weirdos.’
When she launched her make up brand she wanted to provide beauty for those you have always felt alienated, she says, “it was about making this platform for us outsiders, and we were the first brand to really voice inclusivity. It was about not fitting into what’s expected, the societal ideals of what beauty is.”
It seems that changes to the industry over the past decade have also played a factor in her decision to move away from the line, saying that for moment she felt she had found her place in beauty but as she gets older, she feels like she no longer fits in.
Von D says it's an influencer culture thing, “...we have influencers that are just continuously telling you that you have to buy, and if you don’t, you’re not cool or, ‘hey, this is what ‘beauty’ looks like!’ you know... It kind of throws me back to how I felt when I was a kid. So I feel like I stepped away from it a lot, partially on purpose.”
Now she has achieved her goal with the line, it is time for her to move on and focus on the other areas of her life. So what happens to the company? Well it is currently going through a rebrand to ‘KVD Vegan Beauty’ and has put emphasis in an Instagram post on the fact that it does NOT stand for a person's initials but instead for: Kindness, Vegan Beauty and Discovery...yeah, sure it does.
Images via Kat Von D's Instagram
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