Kahlana Barfield Brown: Founder of KBB by KAHLANA

Second Life

Who What Wear

Fashion & Beauty, Arts, Careers, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Business

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kahlana Barfield Brown is the founder of her namesake clothing brand, KBB by Kahlana. Before she became a designer, she was an icon in the editorial world. Her career started at InStyle, where she worked her way up from intern to the publication’s first-ever beauty and fashion editor at large. Her work steering the outlet’s coverage earned her widespread recognition, including the title of Editor of the Year from Harlem’s Fashion Row. She led the outlet for a decade before leaving in 2018 to build her personal brand online in the fashion space. Brown made the leap from reporter to designer in 2022, when Target tapped her to be the first designer for the Future Collective—the company’s first-ever creator-led fashion line. After her first collection sold out quickly, Brown decided to partner with the company again to launch her own brand, KBB, exclusively with the chain. Her designs continue to be wildly successful, as Target plans to expand her collection to over 500 locations nationwide this year.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone. I'm Hilary Kerr, the co-founder and chief content officer of Who What Where,
0:11.3	and this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers.
0:18.3	We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of
0:22.2	setting aside their doubts or fears, and what happens when they embark on their second life.
0:28.4	Today on the show, I'm speaking with fashion designer and entrepreneur Kalana Barfield Brown.
0:34.6	Kalana's career began when an internship at InStyle magazine turned into a full-time
0:39.6	job. From there, she worked her way up the ranks for nearly a decade before she was eventually
0:45.1	named InStyle's first ever fashion and beauty editor at large. But after years of working for a single
0:52.3	publication, she decided to build something of her own and left her role at InStyle to pursue content creation and consulting.
1:00.9	In addition to her career as a creator, in 2022, she officially added designer to her resume when Target tapped her to be the first designer for the future collective, the company's first
1:13.3	ever creator-led fashion line. Since then, her partnership with the company has continued to evolve,
1:19.5	and last year, she launched her own fashion line, KBB, exclusively at Target. And her collection is set to expand to even more locations this year.
1:32.3	I am so excited for you to hear from her.
1:35.3	Now, on Second Life, it's Kalana Barfield Brown.
1:41.1	I just have to say I am so excited to get a chance to sit down with you and talk about everything.
1:46.3	So I've been looking forward to this for quite some time.
1:49.2	I've been looking forward to it too.
1:51.0	I'm so excited to do this, Hillary.
1:53.1	Yay!
1:53.5	Okay, good.
1:54.3	Okay, so we always start at the beginning for this podcast.
1:58.4	So what did you study in school?
	...

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