Jaden Smith: fashion prophet

Words: Max Dylan Lazarus | Illustrations: Eva Faerch

First, they laugh at you, then they imitate you, then they write vaguely birthday-themed tributes based on your childhood tweets. Jaden Smith has long captivated the public’s affection, mockery and admiration with his 140-character millennial musings, his gender binary-flouting aesthetics, and with the natural interest focused onto celebrity dynasty.

Although he’s now very much appreciated by those in the know as an authentic thought-leader and trendsetter, one can easily forget that in his early teen years developing in the glaring light of the public eye, he had the cynically-assigned reputation of a spoiled faux philosopher, a mansion-dwelling Slavoj Zizek fanbot, spouting Bjork-style thoughts with cringeworthy earnestness.

In retrospect, his thoughts are perfect artworks. They’re the thoughts of an atypical teenage boy living a unique experience and coming out the other side as a well-rounded, dreadlock-holding young man. They’re also on-point predictions of 2017’s top fashion trends. A stretch too far you say? Let us counter with this:

What If I Told You That All Tweets Are Actually Fashion Predictions From The Shared Global Consciousness That Is Jaden Smith?

JACKETS + RAIN

Where does the line between philosopher and sadboy blur? Does Jaden fit the conventional definition of sadboy? Probably not. But what is he referring to here? Has it been consistently raining for the past few days, or are the raindrops falling at a consistent rate? Every raindrop speaks a thousand memories, and are memories nothing more than our future selves echoing back unfulfilled potential from unlived lives? Speaking of consistency, Jaden never fails to capitalise Every Single Word. What's he trying to tell us? Probably that jackets are great, and you should wear yours with chinos and weather-proof boots.

LIGHT DRESSING

Jaden knows as well as anyone that the road from light into dark, from winter into spring, from ignorance to knowledge, is paved with difficult questions. Is Jaden speaking about the light we see? No. Is he referring to weight and mass? No, of course not.

ANDROGYNY

Remember that time he wore a dress to prom? What a time. The movement towards androgynous style has been a healthy shift in recent times, and Jaden’s rejection of gender binaries has certainly been a healthy influence on his fans, especially the boys and young men who are overburdened with toxic masculinity. That being said, Jaden, if you're embracing androgyny it's time to embrace selfies too. We support you. (Did we ever find the selfie from this incident btw?)

ACTIVEWEAR

Jaden's love for sneakers and activewear is no secret, but the fact that he’s trapped in an Sisyphean ordeal on a revolving floor, forcing him to run and run while the world parties and sleeps... This is truly a fable for the ages if true. Has anyone ever seen him working out, though? On an actual treadmill? Probably not because he’s doing it while we’re partying and sleeping, and nothing really sticks in the mind at that time. What a guy.

FESTIVALS AND PARTIES

Did Jaden let Coachella twerk on him? I imagine so. Note how the hashtag says “we”, but the quotation says “me”. This is a deep commentary on the nature of collective culture and the power of music and dance to transform the many into the one (note the capitalised ONE). Then Miley appropriated and killed the whole damn thing. That’s why we can’t have nice things. I wonder what Jaden wore to Coachella? Long may he continue to tweet and inspire us.