Karlie Kloss Acquires i-D Magazine From Vice Media
Karlie Kloss is adding another legacy magazine title to her media portfolio. The supermodel and entrepreneur will acquire i-D Magazine from bankruptcy plagued Vice Media.
In 2020, Kloss led a consortium of investors that purchased W Magazine. The sale of i-D was handled through Kloss’s newly former company Bedford Media, where Kloss is chairwoman. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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Alastair McKimm, who has led i-D since 2019, will expand his role, becoming chief creative officer and global editor-in-chief.
Vice Media, which purchased i-D in 2012, earlier this year filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and in June was acquired for $350 million by its creditors, led by Fortress Investment Group.
ID was founded in 1980 by former British Vogue art director Terry Jones. He commissioned work from a bevy of photographers — including Mario Testino, Terry Richardson and Juergen Teller — who would go on to starry careers in the industry. And the London-based magazine became an influential voice in elevating street fashion. (Jones left after the Vice purchase.)
Kloss — who is married to Josh Kushner, principal at investment firm Thrive Capital and brother of Jared Kushner — has been steadily building a business and charitable portfolio. She is the founder of Kode with Klossy, a nonprofit that hosts free summer coding camps for girls. She has partnered with brands including Adidas and Roblox and Carolina Herrera on tech ventures. She has invested in multiple digital startups, including one that embeds digital authentication IDs into garments.
Her connections in business, fashion and Hollywood are numerous and diffuse. Her partners on the W purchase included Jason Blum, the founder Blumhouse Productions; model Kaia Gerber; racing driver Lewis Hamilton; Forerunner Ventures’ Kirsten Green; LionTree’s Aryeh B. Bourkoff and Dara Treseder, now chief marketing officer at Autodesk.
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