Well known as an American author, socialite and former editor of Elle Accessories and a former model is Kelly Killoren Bensimon. She has appeared in magazines such as Elle, Cosmopolitan, and Harper’s Bazaar. She was once the face of Clarins. She is the editor at large for Hamptons Magazine, a free weekly with circulation of 40,000 to 50,000 and Gotham Magazine. can’t do.
In her interview to Women Fitness she talks about her career, diet, exercise etc. Read on to learn more..
Namita Nayyar:
1. You have been a model since the age of 16 years, having been discovered in Elite Model’s “Look of The Year” contest. Starting off as a model at a young age what motivated you for the same?
Kelly Killoren Bensimon:
Back then, what I call the ice age, the trend for models was a healthy blonde blue eyed girl. I was a competitive swimmer with long legs and dark hair. Cindy Crawford and Elle MacPherson were already successful and started to change the new look and trend. They paved the way for girls who looked like me to be in the business. How did you overcome the inhibitions to face the camera? I wasn’t intimidated by the camera, I would just smile. And, I admit to practicing with a Polaroid camera to see how my face looked doing different poses. I remember vividly sitting at my white wicker legged desk in my pink and white bedroom. I was trying different facial expressions while listening to the Violent Femmes song, ‘Kiss Me on the Bus.’ I was wearing a freshly cut grey sweatshirt, which exposed one shoulder. My makeup was Indian Earth bronzer, which came in a pot.
Namita Nayyar:
It was a college professor that encouraged you to start writing for the magazines in which your pictures were appearing. Starting at Hamptons magazine, you later went on to become Editor of Elle Accessories. Share your journey from being a model to a content writer?
Kelly Killoren Bensimon:
I was at the right place at the right time. I met a Creative Writing professor at Columbia University, Professor Alan Ziegler, who liked my storytelling and my fresh, unique, and raw way of describing my experiences. He was such a pioneer in his thinking and encouraged me to write for magazines for free. I was the model in the image, and the text was my experience. He literally made me a content provider, and encouraged me to write my opinions and impressions of the subject matter. He gave me a voice. I created columns to connect advertisers to incredible demographic areas like the Hamptons. It was crazy for we could see the following Monday how many dresses/ shoes/ watches were sold after the magazine hit the doorstep of The Golden Pear in Southampton. It was really exciting. I brought that same infectious enthusiasm to Elle Accessories. I hired more aggressive writers who were later stolen by Harpers Bazaar and, I had men talk about women in a woman’s magazine (Proust style)- which was unheard of. I was obsessed with Proust, and I wanted women to hear what men thought of them. I was always interested in how men saw women.
Elle Accessories was powerful because the messaging was different from other magazines. Accessories are democratic and don’t have an age or size. So, the 14 year old girl was reading the magazine and the 40 year old mom was buying the products- when that happens, you have a brand. The anthologies were different. I didn’t have Google. I had libraries, librarians, and incredible story tellers who shared their memories with me. I had the incredible luxury to synthesize all of these incredible stories and color the pages with my friends personal family photos, and images from the incredible photographers I worked with. All of Assouline anthologies In the Spirit of the Hamptons I,II; American Style, and the Bikini Book are very special to me.
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