Scroll Veneda Carter’s Instagram and it’s instantly apparent that the in-demand Copenhagen-born stylist — who just shot for the September/October issue of Vogue Living and launched her very own self-named denim line — has mastered the art of the mirror selfie. Over the last two decades, a mirror’s glass has doubled as a medium for Carter’s visual diary-keeping; it’s how she documents her personal style evolution as well as her changing identities, from green fashion muse to empowered, mogul-in-the-making mother. In today’s reflection, the Danish designer, who was born to Polish parents, sees “an experienced woman, confident in her own skin, really knowing what she represents,” she said, adding, with a smile, “This is the realest I’ve ever been.”
But she hasn’t always found her mirror so flattering.
THE GLARE OF ANXIETY
Glass used to glare back at her from the walls of tiny New York model apartments and studios during casting calls. It was the scowl of a judge. At the time, she was just 19 years old, armed with a remarkable beauty that helped pluck her from obscurity in Denmark and land a bigwig Supreme Management modeling contract in America’s fashion capital. It was a fashion fairytale — only, the kind written by the Brothers Grimm, in which the modeling industry’s notoriously toxic microscope is applied to a young model’s radiance. For Carter, this meant she was scrutinized by agents who made derisive comments about her weight, scoffing at mere centimeters beyond the unrealistic standard upheld by the industry and imposed on professional models. According to a study by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Northeastern University, 62% of models have been asked to lose weight or change their shape or size to secure more jobs. Naturally, for Carter, the pressure was suffocating.
“There were times I couldn’t even walk out of the house because of anxiety,” said Carter, now 33. “It will overcome you in moments where you’re supposed to perform professionally, and you just have to exit the situation.” Though her debut career was glamorous on paper, it was also a breeding ground for insecurity. Each job felt like a referendum on her body rather than her talent, and the quiet weeks in between her high-paying modeling gigs only let negative feelings fester. “I went through so much rejection, and so much anxiety built up from not being ‘good enough,’” she said. “It was traumatizing.”
Over time, Carter found ways to guard against the sea of toxicity. She developed resilience and a newfound self-confidence that became an anchor. Mirrors became private classrooms in which she developed herself as a tastemaker by taking photos of herself on an iPhone. “I used the mirror to study what looks good — the proportion of my outfit, the volume of a skirt, how my body looks in a certain light,” she said. “It was, and still is, a cool way of understanding myself.”
A YEEZY BREAK
Carter’s story might have ended there, another cautionary tale about modeling, if not for a rogue DM from Kanye West’s team in 2016. One of the most influential brands of the era, YEEZY had discovered Carter’s fit checks and someone had pinned a few on mood boards in the offices. The team wanted to fly Carter to Los Angeles to work as an assistant at the label. At first, she thought the invitation was a joke. Within 48 hours, Carter was on a plane to Calabasas.
“I made a decision starting at YEEZY knowing that my salary would be more than half than what I’d made before,” she said. “But the financial part was not important. I knew this was going to bring me closer to what I really wanted to do.” With no real role carved out for her, taking the job required a leap of faith into YEEZY’s intoxicating orbit — one that completely altered her trajectory.
Carter compared her early days at YEEZY to enrolling in an unorthodox university: Each day was foreign to the last, and her reputation was built on a hunger to prove herself through hard work. “If I didn’t go through all the assisting roles, and if I wasn’t in the room with all these amazing creative people, I wouldn’t have the knowledge I do,” she said. “I wouldn’t be where I am right now.”
Within 12 months, she had become a head stylist. “It was so refreshing to be recognized for something that wasn’t about my looks,” she said. Her breakthroughs earned notable nods from Kim Kardashian, who quietly hired Carter as her stylist in 2019, calling her “the coolest girl in the world” and crediting her for some of her most memorable looks, including the six-packed, Marvel hero-like Schiaparelli gown Kardashian wore to celebrate Christmas in 2020.
DOING IT FOR HERSELF
“It’s such a satisfying feeling … when people see the stuff I do, styling or designing, and they say, ‘Oh, this is Veneda,’” she explained. “You can tell from afar it’s mine.” After decades spent musing other people’s visions, she felt compelled to create a world stamped with her name. In 2022, she launched her eponymous jewelry line, a futuristic-yet-timeless ensemble of sculptural statements inspired by family heirlooms. From the get-go, her motive was clear: “It was so important to me to be able to do something that everyone could be a part of,” she said. “I didn’t want it to be just $800 pieces. I wanted pieces that were affordable, too.”
Her awareness of price accessibility is the product of personal experience. “I don’t come from money at all,” she said. “My parents immigrated to Denmark before I was born for a better life. My mom cleaned apartments and restaurants. Most of my life, my parents got help from the government. So for me, it was always important to make something accessible.”
Over the last several years, Carter has proven herself to be a lucrative collaborator, linking up with the likes of Timberland, with which she crafted electric-blue patent leather heeled boots that quickly sold out, and Nike, to create a sporty Air Max Muse style that her fans voraciously bought. Now, Carter is empire-building. Over the summer, she launched a debut denim line, which fills in her wardrobe’s gaps with eight genderless uniform pieces, spanning low-rise mini skirts and studded jeans to boxy vests and zip-up tops. Where her jewelry line established her singular voice in embellishment, denim provided her the framework to articulate proportion, volume and wearability on a ubiquitous level, much like her mirror selfies.
Her pieces are for “everyone,” Carter said. The Veneda Carter brand’s universe is all hers, without compromise. “I love that my audience is so wide. It’s females, it’s males, it’s kids, it’s older people. And it’s all over the world — not just America. Recently I’ve had a lot of orders from Dubai. … When you work with a client, and they want one thing, you have to meet in the middle. But my line is fully me.”
PROUD MOTHER FOUND HER LIGHT
For all her fashion-world acclaim and industry milestones, what Carter sees as her magnum opus wasn’t on a runway or in a campaign. “Becoming a mom is my proudest accomplishment,” she said, without hesitation. Motherhood, she added, stripped away her trivial anxieties. “You care less about irrelevant things. You start to look at life differently.
“My big goal has nothing to do with career or fashion. I just want to be healthy,” Carter said. “I want my child, my family and my friends to be healthy. I think that’s the most important. Without mental health, it’s so hard to do anything.”
In hindsight, she views her own dependability, determination and diligence as integral to overcoming her mental hurdles. “It doesn’t matter where you are in life, if you have a luxurious life or not — you just have to be open to give it all and not complain. I stayed patient, and I didn’t complain,” she said.
Throughout Carter’s life, the constant has always been the looking glass, and the variable has always been her ability to shift the light in her favor. If her mirror once magnified self-doubt, it now highlights self-confidence. In her stylish shots, Carter no longer sees a girl weighed down by rejection but a woman who has reaped the benefits of risk. “I see that I am consistent,” she said. “I am so proud of the woman I’ve become.”
