In a world where fashion and technology increasingly intersect, supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss is redefining the future of fashion. Through her initiative, Kode With Klossy, founded in 2015, Kloss is equipping young women and nonbinary youth with crucial tech skills. Her vision? A future where fashion designers won’t just be sewing; they’ll also be coding.
Kloss’s journey began with curiosity, stemming from her Midwestern upbringing where her father, an ER physician, fostered in her a love for science, technology, and math. Despite her early start in modeling, Kloss’s thirst for knowledge led her to take a coding class that forever altered her perspective on fashion and tech. The experience sparked a passion for coding, revealing how technology could revolutionize fashion by tackling real-world issues like sustainability, inclusivity, and waste reduction.
As Kloss pursued her new-found interest, she noticed a glaring lack of diversity in tech. Driven by the need to see more underrepresented groups—particularly women and gender minorities—in STEM, she launched Kode With Klossy. The program has since taught over 12,000 scholars to code, empowering them to develop innovative projects. These young minds have created apps using machine learning for recycling education and social networks for connecting aspiring tech professionals from marginalized groups.
While continuing her modeling career, Kloss has collaborated with big names like Adidas and Roblox, pushing the boundaries of digital fashion. By leveraging technology such as 3D modeling, AI, and AR, Kloss envisions a future where digital design drives inclusivity and sustainability in the fashion industry. For example, with projects like the virtual try-on tool Bods and the RFID-tagging startup Eon, Kloss is paving the way for more environmentally conscious fashion practices.
Kloss sees coding as essential for tomorrow’s designers, believing that the marriage of tech and creativity is key to solving the industry’s biggest challenges. From reducing the carbon footprint to fostering diversity in design, the future of fashion lies in the hands of coders as much as it does in those of seamstresses.
By inspiring and educating a new generation of creative technologists, Kloss hopes to bridge the gap between fashion and tech, ensuring the future of fashion is not only beautiful but also sustainable, inclusive, and tech-driven. As she says, “Designers in the future won’t just be sewing, they’ll be coding.”
