Kiera Chaplin: On Heritage, Conviction, and the Things Worth Carrying Everywhere

There is a version of Kiera Chaplin that is easy to write. The granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, raised partly in Switzerland, signed to a modelling agency young, and photographed across two decades of fashion. That version is accurate. It is also only the beginning.

Kiera Chaplin is a model, actress and businesswoman — the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin. But what defines her now is less about inheritance than about what she has done with it. She competed in the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles, the women-only off-road rally across the Moroccan desert, driving an electric vehicle to show that sustainability and performance are not opposites. She helped build the Kiera Chaplin Desert Flower School with the Desert Flower Foundation.

She is, by any measure, a person who travels constantly and chooses carefully. What goes in the bag matters — because the bag goes everywhere.

Beauty Disrupted and Kiera share a specific belief: that a thing done well and a thing done responsibly are not in conflict. We sent her some questions. What follows is her answer.

On carrying a name — and making it your own

BD: You carry one of the most recognised names in cinema. What you've built with it feels deliberate. How do you think about that?

Kiera: The name has always been a huge source of inspiration to me — genuinely. It gave me an incredible starting point: access, curiosity, a sense of what's possible.

But what you do with that starting point is always up to the person to find out for themselves. For me, that's meant building things that are mine: GENERATION, the spirits company I co-founded with my brother Spencer, is my main focus this year — we've already picked up Platinum at the Las Vegas Global Spirits Awards for the vodka. There's the Chaplin Awards, which I established in 2018 and which has honoured people like Zhang Yimou and Tony Leung Chiu-wai. There's the school we built with Desert Flower Foundation, focused on education for girls. And this year I gave my first keynote, at the Creative Women event.

I'm proud of where I come from, and I'm proud of what I've built since — both things are true at once. Legacy isn't something you're handed, it's something you keep adding to, chapter by chapter.

BD: Your grandfather's work was built on observation. Do you see a parallel in how you work?

Kiera: Absolutely — quality is what stands the test of time. One thing I learned from my grandfather is that taking the time to get things right pays off in the long run.

When we built the school with Desert Flower Foundation, we took the time to make sure it would genuinely last, not just make for a good photo on opening day. When I wrote my first keynote speech, I went through around twelve drafts to get it down to ten minutes and one question. In both cases the work was mostly subtraction — figuring out what didn't need to be there.

People can see through fakeness, and there's too much of that out there right now. I'd rather be on the side of real, trustworthy quality.

On travel — and what earns its place

BD: You move between Switzerland, Paris, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Asia — constantly. Most people's relationship with travel is occasional. Yours is structural. What does that kind of life teach you about what you actually need?

Kiera: That I need much less than I think I do — although I'm still capable of packing for three weeks when I'm leaving for three days.

Right now that covers a lot of ground: trade meetings for GENERATION across Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the UK, visits to the school we built with Desert Flower Foundation in Sierra Leone, and show jumping competitions in between. I'm rarely in one place for long.

Travel teaches you fast what you actually use versus what you're simply carrying. I want products that work, travel well, and that I don't have to think about. If something earns a permanent spot in my suitcase, that's a real compliment.

The solid format was made for exactly that. The Voyager — three travel-size bars in one ritual — travels without the liquids restriction, doesn't leak, and keeps the same ritual at home and away.

BD: You grew up in Corsier-sur-Vevey. We like to think there's something in that Alpine precision that shapes how you approach things: no excess, no compromise on what matters. Does that resonate?

Kiera: Growing up there shaped me, though I probably didn't appreciate it at the time — the lake, the mountains, the changing seasons.

But I don't think of myself as tied to one place. Geneva is home base, but I'm on planes constantly — for work. If anything, that upbringing taught me to appreciate things made properly wherever I find them — that's followed me everywhere I've lived, New York and LA included.

On conviction — and the difference from gesture

BD: You were in the first electric car category of the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles in 2018. Most people make sustainability claims. You drove one across the Moroccan desert. What is the difference, to you, between genuine conviction and performative gesture?

Kiera: Conviction means testing an idea in the real world instead of just talking about it. Driving an EV through the Moroccan desert wasn't a statement — it was finding out what the thing could actually do under pressure.

It was genuinely a life-changing experience — surrounded by courageous women, all there for adventure and for a good cause at the same time. You go in wanting to do good, and somehow it ends up doing just as much good for you. The rally reminded me how many beautiful places there still are to see, and that nature is honestly the best artist that exists.

BD: Plastic is something you have spoken about directly — the idea that recycling is not the answer, that the question should be whether it gets produced at all. Beauty Disrupted was built on the same argument: the bottle is not a packaging problem, it is a formula problem. When you first came across the brand, what stood out?

Kiera: Honestly, how beautiful it was.

Sustainable products have often been presented as a trade-off against luxury or performance. I don't think it should work that way — it's the same argument I'd make about anything I put my name behind, from GENERATION to the work with Desert Flower Foundation. You shouldn't have to choose between doing it properly and doing it well.

Beauty Disrupted felt different because the sustainability is built into the product, not bolted on as a story afterward — there's no bottle to recycle because there was never a need for one in the first place. Make something beautiful, make it perform, and remove what's unnecessary: that's a formula I respect. I'm genuinely happy to see a brand paving the way for real change — our oceans need it.

On the product

BD: Which rituals do you use?

Kiera: I use the Amazonian Amour and Alpine Glow shampoo and conditioner bars. My hair has been through a lot — modelling, shoots, styling, colour, highlights — so I'm always looking for something that leaves it healthy and strong without weighing it down.

It also has to feel luxurious. The scent, the texture, how my hair feels afterward — all of that matters to me. Sustainability makes me curious about a product, but it still has to perform if I' m going to keep reaching for it.

BD: The first time people use a solid conditioner, there's often a moment of doubt. What was your experience?

Kiera: Yes — my first thought was, "Is this really going to be enough for my hair?"

We're conditioned, no pun intended, to think more product and more foam means something is working harder. It took a moment to adjust, but once I rinsed and dried my hair, I got it. Soft and healthy, without that coated feeling traditional conditioners can leave. The result convinced me far more than any explanation could have.

It is one difference some users notice with a silicone-free conditioning system — which is why we recommend judging the complete result once the hair is dry. We wrote about why here.

BD: You travel with solid haircare now. Where does it go — and has it changed how you think about what a travel routine can look like?

Kiera: Straight into my wash bag — no worrying about liquids, leaking bottles, or opening a suitcase to find your conditioner has redecorated your clothes.

That's the kind of advantage you don't appreciate until you're living out of a suitcase. It's shown me a good routine doesn't need ten bottles. Fewer products that work beautifully, take up less space, and create less waste — that's an upgrade, not a compromise.

On what comes next

BD: The school in Sierra Leone. The Chaplin Awards. The rally. GENERATION. GENERATION Conversations. You seem to operate without a single lane. What connects all of it — what is the through line?

Kiera: Curiosity, mostly. I've never been good at staying in one lane, and I've stopped trying.

Right now GENERATION is my main focus — building the brand across our vodka, whiskey and aperitif with Spencer. Alongside that, I'm growing our founder-led interview series, continuing the Chaplin Awards, and staying involved with Desert Flower Foundation's work on girls' education. I gave my first keynote this year too, which surprised me by becoming something I want to keep doing. And I came back to show jumping a few years ago after twenty years away, which has turned out to be one of the better decisions I've made.

The projects look different from the outside, but they're connected by the same thing: people, creativity, and building something that didn't exist before. I'd rather genuinely contribute to a project than just attach my name to it. You can be a businesswoman and care about philanthropy. You can love fashion, horses, storytelling and entrepreneurship at the same time. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to fit one definition — I'd rather build a legacy one chapter at a time.

BD: Last question. For someone who has spent her career being photographed — Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Town & Country, film work alongside people like Reese Witherspoon and Judi Dench — what is beauty to you now, at this point in your life and work?

Kiera: It's changed enormously. When you start modelling at sixteen, beauty gets tangled up with what you see in the mirror and how other people see you.

With age — and honestly, with building businesses rather than just showing up to be photographed — I've realised the most beautiful people aren't the most perfect-looking ones. They're the ones with energy, curiosity, kindness, a sense of humour, and something they're actually building.

I still love fashion and getting dressed up — not giving that up. But real beauty is being comfortable with who you are. Laugh a lot. Stay curious. Take care of yourself. Be kind. And don't spend your life trying to look twenty-five. There are far more interesting things to be.

 

Closing

Kiera uses Beauty Disrupted's Amazonian Amour and Alpine Glow shampoo and conditioner bars, at home and on the road. Explore the rituals she travels with.