From Vintage Chanel To Rare Nikes: Veneda Carter Takes Us Inside Her Extraordinary Closet

Getting to Veneda Carter requires an elevator ride that, at various points in history, has carried rock legends and silver screen icons to their floors. Her building, one of Los Angeles's most storied and cinematic addresses, has that "if-these-walls-could-talk" energy. It is exactly the kind of place someone like Carter should live. When the doors open and you knock on her door, the first thing that greets you is a floor-to-ceiling shoe rack. Shoes, of course! This is, after all, a woman who is—among other things—a stylist, a designer, and a very serious collector of footwear. However, this is only a mere fraction of what she owns. (The rest is somewhere in her massive, extraordinary closet.) 

Like her shoe collection, Carter's career is vast, carefully curated, and only partially on display. At just 23, she was recruited into the Yeezy universe after Kanye West discovered her Instagram in 2016. Later, she became Kim Kardashian's stylist (Kardashian once called her "the coolest girl I know" in an Instagram story), collaborated with brands like Nike and Timberland, and launched her own label in 2022.

She started with jewelry—chunky, nugget-textured pieces in sterling silver and 18k gold vermeil inspired by a gold crucifix pendant her grandmother once designed for her—that quickly found their way onto Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny, Halsey, and Kardashian herself. Ready-to-wear followed in 2024, with elevated loungewear and structured denim pieces. But where many of her contemporaries have built careers as much on their own visibility as their work, Carter has remained remarkably under the radar. "I like to protect things that are close to me," she says. "Sometimes I feel like being very loud about what you're doing can have negative side effects."

Carter's path to fashion started somewhere most people wouldn't guess. She was born in Copenhagen and was raised by Polish parents—a fact that surprises most people, who assume she is American. "I get a lot of inspiration from that," she says of her background. "I spent a lot of time in Warsaw growing up. I'm really inspired by the brutalist architecture, even the whole sports scene we have in Europe with soccer, and how grandparents used to dress." 

Her first introduction to fashion came through her mother, who was "really into clothes" and volunteered at a Red Cross store. "It wasn't so much high-end designer," recalls Carter. "It was just clothes in general—so much of it, so many different pieces, and sometimes we would find designer pieces in between." But it wasn't just her mother's influence shaping her eye. Her older brother had introduced her to music, which had a lasting influence on her aesthetic. And, like most girls of her generation, she was completely devoted to the Spice Girls. (She even begged her parents for her own pair of their signature Buffalo platform boots, but settled for a bootleg style instead.) 

At 12, she was scouted as a model, which set the stage for her styling career. "Modeling definitely exposed me to styling in that way," she says. I've always been really into clothes and loved dressing myself, but styling as a job—actually seeing that as a possibility—that came from modeling. I think a lot of people who work in fashion start with one thing and then move to another. It just makes sense."

Carter began using Instagram as a mood board of sorts, posting outfits and architecture that caught her eye. Then one day, she received a DM from West's assistant. She flew out to LA the very next day, and ended up working at Yeezy from 2016 to 2021, learning everything she could, from styling and pattern making to concept development and "how to really run a fashion house." For someone without formal training, it was the equivalent of a master's degree. "I never went to the university, I never studied past high school, so being able to express yourself creatively, and for that to be a job, and something you truly enjoy, was quite fantastic," she says. In 2019, she started working with Kardashian. "I think I brought some energy and vibes that felt very new and fresh to her at the time. And she taught me so much—as the businesswoman she is, as the mother she is." 

However, the relationship didn't end there. Carter has since collaborated with Kardashian's SKIMS clothing brand as a designer, creating the jewelry for a vintage-inspired stretch satin collection, and appeared in campaigns alongside her daughter Bobbi. Since working with Kardashian, Carter's styling work has become more selective, focusing on brand campaigns and collaborations rather than a dedicated client roster. But her real creative energy is somewhere closer to home.  "I was just thinking about this the other day, like, where do I get really happy? And I think working on my own thing, my own projects—that's where I find the most excitement," she says. "Because once you work with other people, it will never fully be yours."

The massive walk-in closet on the second floor is, in many ways, the most honest version of Carter. It is as much an archive as it is a wardrobe, and it didn't happen by accident. Much of it came via eBay, where Carter has spent years developing what she describes as "a good setup"—a finely tuned system for sourcing vintage and deadstock gems, whether for her own collection or for design research. "I have my way of finding things," she says. "I get so many things from there—not so much anymore, because I don't have the time to sit and research, but I love eBay." She loves shopping in person too —"you can see and feel the garments"—though she draws the line at the fitting room. "I hate trying things on," she laughs, "but I could never get tired of shopping."

Everything is organized in a way that feels more personal rather than curated. Racks of clothing are arranged by type, with jackets and coats commanding a decent amount of real estate. There are vintage Chanel, Jil Sander, and Comme des Garçons pieces. Jewelry and accessories lay flat in drawers; vintage watches and necklaces pool alongside her own sculptural gold designs. 

Her bag collection, though impressive, is a more recent obsession. "I haven't always been a big bag person; it's something I've come to within the past couple of years," she says. There's an eclectic mix of legacy luxury—Prada, Burberry—next to newer designers, like Sierra Rena's SIV label and Carter's friend Amy Shehab, an Egyptian-American designer from New Jersey whose work Carter collects in its entirety. "I have every single bag she has ever made," she says.

Then, there are—you guessed it: more shoes. Rows and rows of sneakers, boots, loafers, and slides. The lace-up, blue patent leather heels from her Timberland collaboration. A pair of gray, cracked leather, knee-high boots from the Balinese-Australian footwear label, Dirt. And, last but not least, almost every Nike known to man, some even going back to 2005. Her most cherished pair is from a Nike collaboration with the UK sneaker boutique Size? "They're very special," she says. 

The collection is also a blueprint for what's to come. Carter has designed shoes for Timberland and Nike, collaborating with the latter on the Air Max Muse, and was recently tapped by Off-White for its 10x10: Icons Reimagined initiative, where she designed a sharp, scarlet architectural heel that hasn't yet been released. But her ultimate ambition is to design her own: "I would really love to get into handbags and footwear and heels," she says. 

Motherhood has left its mark on Carter's closet, too. She's been "exploring my more feminine side," with more dresses, skirts, and other garments that she "hadn't really worn before." Carter is also in "a good place mentally", which leaves more room for experimentation and play. "I'm so okay with who I am," she says. "And becoming older, I just want to have fun with dressing again and find that excitement with clothes that I used to have right when I started." 

Credits:
Photographer:  Paige Campbell Linden
Makeup: Wendy Cordero