Jaden and Willow Smith Actually Toned Down Their Style When They Became Famous
At last year’s Met Ball, esteemed former Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley deemed Jaden and Willow Smith “the future of fashion.” But according to Jaden, the siblings’ fearless fashion sense actually peaked in the past.
The youngest children of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith recently sat down for a Q&A session with Pharrell Williams for Interview magazine. After touching upon their career aspirations and creative ventures, the music mogul prompted Jaden and Willow to walk him through their style evolutions.
“So how did your interest in fashion begin?” Pharrell, 43, asked the pair. “I know it’s a really lame question. But I’m sure people want to know at what point you recognized that you wanted to do it.”
The siblings happily reminisced about fashions past.
“Jaden would only wear his Spider-Man costume,” Willow reflected. “I would freaking mismatch every single shirt and pants in my closet. We would just be so rambunctious with our clothing choices.”
Known for his gender-defying style and his impeccable taste in skirts, Jaden, 18, made headlines earlier this summer when he told Nylon that he’d gladly transcend the unspoken “rules” of masculinity if it meant “in five years when a kid goes to school wearing a skirt, he won’t get beat up and kids won’t get mad at him.”
Taking a cue from her big brother, Willow, 15, also pushes fashion boundaries with her larger-than-life style. The Chanel ambassador will rock platform shoes and bright, funky clothing one day, then wear a subdued, genderless getup the next.
While the duo’s head-turning style has always been authentic, Jaden revealed that he feels they were much more fashion-forward back in the day.
“Nobody knows that Willow and I were much, much cooler before,” the current face of Louis Vuitton told Pharrell. “Like, before people were looking at the things that we were doing, we were so much more, like, method with fashion. We really went all the way. We went the extra mile on everything because there was no one looking at us. We’ve been through the roof, with ludicrous fashion ideas since we were extremely young.”
With fame comes the intense pressure to conform. As young Jaden and Willow Smith transitioned into household names, the industry began scrutinizing their every move — and every look. However, the siblings knew they had a reliable support system to fall back on.
“When we were old enough to start dressing ourselves, my mom was like, ‘Are you sure you want to go out like that?’” Willow remembered. “And me and Jaden would be like, ‘You know what? Yes.’ And she’d totally accept it. I feel like that’s where most of our confidence comes from. Because we weren’t told, ‘Oh, you don’t look good in that. You look crazy. People are gonna think this about you.’ Like, obviously, that was going to be happening regardless, but it wasn’t like that ruled what we did or the choices that we made.”
Jaden agreed that his parents are definitely his biggest role models (“That’s where me and Willow both pull all of our inspiration from to change the world”) and showed his appreciation for the confidence his family gives him.
Fueled by the support of their parents, Jaden and Willow were able to turn their creativity and personal styles into major deals with names like Chanel and Louis Vuitton — all before reaching the age of 20.
These days, the siblings are showing no signs of slowing down. Jaden spends his time bouncing back and forth between his role in Baz Luhrmann’s The Get Down, which premiered on Netflix earlier this month, and his music career. He dropped a new track titled “Labor V2” for his 18th birthday in July, trailing the December 2015 release of Willow’s latest album, Ardipithecus — though Jaden is never mad when Willow beats him to the punch.
“We never really felt competitive because Willow’s always been better than me at everything,” he joked. “There’s been no competition.”
But if the siblings ever do decide to ditch their roles as fashion icons, they can rest easy knowing they have lengthy résumés to fall back on: Jaden first starred alongside his pops in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) before scoring the coveted lead in the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid. Willow too made her film debut with Dad in I Am Legend (2007) and later went platinum with her first single, “Whip My Hair.”
Style phases may come and go, but it’s clear that success has always been a part of the Smith siblings’ wardrobe.
