You know, if this is how the rest of the year shakes out, I’m happy.
And first: happy new year. We did it, we got through 2015 and are now face to face with the cold (literally — it’s about -2925825 degrees outside, arguably to freeze out any negativity that tried to follow us into 2016) light of day. But second? Jaden Smith has just been named the new face of Louis Vuitton’s SS2016 womenswear campaign.
That’s right. We don’t have any time for your gender conformity here, thank you.
The announcement was made via Instagram by artistic director Nicolas Ghesquiere, and he kept it short and sweet:
“Happy to introduce Jaden Smith @christiangrey in the new SS16 @louisvuitton ad Campaign photographed by Bruce Webster,” he said. (See?)
The 17-year-old is no stranger to fashion risks as he wore a skirt to prom (like a total boss), and has also spoken about taking aesthetic risks and expressing himself through fashion.
“I’m just expressing how I feel inside,” he told GQ recently. “Which is really no particular way because every day it changes how I feel about the world and myself, but I like wearing super drapey things so I can feel as though I’m a super hero, but don’t have to necessarily wear super hero costumes every day.”
Like, imagine being that self aware and strong as a teenager. When I was 17, I was wearing skate clothes and boys’ hoodies because I thought that’s what the boy I liked wanted me to wear. (Which he kind of did, but he also called me a poser, so I couldn’t win, and also I saw “looking like a girl” as some kind of travesty, which is tragically incorrect.) I wish there’d been teens like Jaden around 10 years ago so I could wear clothes on my own accord. Or, that I’d gone to school with guys who didn’t see femininity as weakness — either/or.
So this is some seriously cool shit to kick off the first work week of 2016. (I mean, don’t get me wrong: Harry Styles and Kendall Jenner on a yacht is tot-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sorry I fell asleep because I couldn’t even joke about it without rolling my eyes so far back I passed out due to boredom.) But in addition to Jaden’s effect on 2016, his modelling debut is also some seriously cool shit in general. Jaden Smith’s sense of self is inspiring on entirely new levels, especially since he looks like an absolute boss in any/all featured photos and sees women’s clothing as what it is: clothing. Full stop. Wearable by anybody.
2016, you guys. Cooler than 2015 already.
