Meet the sister styling duo who are Kylie Jenner’s right-hand women
Everyone knows the Kardashian-Jenner sisters are partial to a style transformation, and fashion week is the perfect place to flex their sartorial muscles. The most recent sister to dip her toe in the ‘muse’ pond is Kylie Jenner, who attended Paris fashion week spring/summer 2023 and made a splash in a range of great looks.
At Acne Studios she donned a caped white dress and face-wrapping white shades, and at Loewe she toyed with two on-trend cult items—Y-front underwear and a singlet, under a trench coat—that both came courtesy of the Spanish house. Among the tour de force of looks were blue velvet Schiaparelli Haute Couture, skintight MM6 Maison Martin Margiela and sheer Dilara Findikoglu, paired with wet-look hair in alignment with the Turkish-British designer’s recent runway.
Jenner proved her determination to turning a look in Paris, but the fun didn’t end there. She followed in the footsteps of older sister Kim Kardashian and wore archival Mugler to open the brand’s exhibition in November, while days prior she was pared-back in Loewe at the Baby2Baby gala, delicate pleating still visible on the custom black gown.
Jenner at the Loewe spring/summer 2023 show in Paris. Image credit: Getty Images
A great stylist is the secret ingredient for any high-fashion transformation, and luckily for Jenner, she has two. Sister duo Alexandra and Mackenzie Grandquist (@rosegrandquist and @makkaroo on Instagram) have been aiding the youngest Jenner on her fashion journey, helping her look her best in a mix of established and newcomer labels. This year, Alexandra and Mackenzie even managed to incorporate a high-fashion moment into Jenner’s Halloween costumes; as the Bride of Frankenstein, the Kylie Skin founder wore a ruched dress that came straight from an haute couture runway.
“Once Kylie sent us her Halloween ideas, we went straight to work on who could create these concepts for us to perfection,” Alexandra tells Vogue. “The second I saw the reference image I thought of Jean Paul Gaultier’s haute couture spring/summer 2022 collection,” Mackenzie adds. “We immediately reached out to the team to tell them about our idea. They came back to us so quickly with a gorgeous sketch and fabric options. The design came so [naturally] and felt perfect!” Jenner’s consequent Bride of Frankenstein looks comprised of pieces from designers Entire Studios, Ren Haixi and Peet Dullaert.
Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture spring/summer 2023. Image credit: Vogue Runway
The thought of styling Kylie Jenner—she of 373 million Instagram followers, with a fashion pull that’s influenced a generation—is a dream job, but the Grandquist sisters didn’t grow up around such pop-culture royalty. The two were raised in West Des Moines, Iowa, a city of nearly 79,000 that’s far from Los Angeles’s bright lights. “We both had an interest in fashion our whole life as our parents both had such a good eye for style and design,” Mackenzie says. Both decamped to study at LA’s Fashion Insтιтute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), before embarking on their own fashion journeys: Mackenzie worked at U.S. chain Free People as a stylist, and Alexandra ᴀssisted and interned for local designers. Before long, they were in-sync in their career goals and decided to go at it together.
“I did my research, reached out to a handful of top stylists. I started interning, then ᴀssisting—it snowballed from there,” Alexandra says. “Once my sister and I decided to make the transition in becoming a styling duo, everything organically aligned, with hard work of course.”
The two worked for Jenner’s partner Travis Scott, who was the conduit for her connection with the stylists, and everything since then is history.
“I loved that we could take our experience in men’s styling and apply it to Kylie’s personal style and swag,” Alexandra says. “What is so intriguing about Kylie is that she can pull off many different looks. She already is a creative force, [so] we knew collaborating and working with her would be incredible.”
Jenner at the Coperni show in Paris. Image credit: Getty Images
As with many talented creatives, the two maintain a low profile and prefer to let their work do the talking. Their Instagram accounts are populated with proud posts; everything from Jenner wearing archival Thierry Mugler to off-the-runway Marine Serre denim, or custom Coperni latex (Jenner helped catapult the aforementioned French label’s mod round handbags to fame). For the CFDA Awards after Paris fashion week, the sisters were given the surreal opportunity to dip into Mugler’s archive of outré designs and find looks for Jenner to wear to both the Awards and the opening of Thierry Mugler’s retrospective in New York.
“We have always been inspired by the archives of Mugler and this opportunity came at the perfect time—we were already in talks about attending the opening night of the exhibition and were traveling to New York for the CFDAs,” they share over email. “We imagined it would be a special start if Kylie wore an archive Mugler dress to the CFDA awards in honour of the exhibition coming to NY, and ending by attending the opening night of the museum. Thankfully the team was on board [and] after many meetings and a sneak peek in the museum, we found the perfect archive looks for Kylie. The entire process was a dream come true!”
Jenner wears Mugler at the CFDA Awards in New York. Image credit: Getty Images
Jenner has experimented extensively with fashion in her 25 years, and Mackenzie and Alexandra note she’s proactive and collaborative when it comes to creating a look.
“We all communicate as much as possible—we never stop researching, and she is always sending us inspo, ideas and what she is loving as well,” Mackenzie says. “We are constantly creating mood boards and finding inspiration from all over. Searching for new designers, new looks, the search truly never ends. From there we have a fitting to find the perfect look for her and the specific event.” Per Alexandra, “We never stop the research process and try to keep as in tune with her as possible.”
Working for someone like Jenner, who is unexpectedly chameleonic in her style, presents exciting opportunities for the sisters. “I have always loved that Kylie can pull off so many different vibes and looks—that to me is interesting, fun and challenging in a good way,” Mackenzie says. When asked their favourites from Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2023, she can’t pick just one, and nominates every single look from Jenner’s week-long blockbuster outing.
“Schiaparelli was very special, Dilara Findikoglu was so Sєxy; I love [Kylie] in red,” Mackenzie says. “Acne was a moment, Coperni was a futuristic dream, Loewe was cool, mellow, effortless. Mugler at the BoF gala was a highlight, the lace, the layers; so H๏τ. The casual MM6 swag for lunch. I was just so happy with everything.”
Jenner at the Coperni show in Paris. Image credit: Getty Images
After a meteoric rise in the styling world, both sisters are acquainted with the hard work and drive it takes to be recognised. Just like many jobs in fashion, what appears glamorous at the surface is much less so underneath.
“‘Styling’ is about 30 per cent of the job, if even!” Mackenzie says. “There are many elements that go into being a professional stylist. Organisation, planning, and bookkeeping are big skills that are needed. They go hand in hand with the trend research, the networking you do [and] the people skills you need to withhold. It’s an endless process that gets better with time.”
Fortunately, the two have one another, or “four eyes on each project” as Alexandra quips. Just like Kylie and her sisters lift each other up on The Kardashians, Alexandra and Mackenzie ride for one another in the perpetually busy world of fashion.
“There is so much [to enjoy],” Mackenzie says of working with her sister, “but mostly the endless amount of trust and love. Our job really occupies a lot of our life but doing it aside sisters is truly the best and only way I could do it. Experiencing a lot of big moments together truly keeps us humble. We have a great dynamic, most of the time…” Sisters will be sisters, at the end of the day.
