Jaden Smith’s Louboutin Debut Copies His Influences

The lesson from Jaden Smith’s music career is that — even with only small amounts of talent — a remarkably well-funded nepo baby can end up putting out compelling work. All you need is an almost unlimited hose of cash, and connections to the best producers in the business. His debut album “SYRE” was overly long, deeply indulgent, and almost impressively unoriginal — but also fun, well-produced, and with some highlights. Even the faintest fan of Kanye West could tell that the young Mr. Smith was just copying the Louis Vuitton Don, but Mr. West is — or was — an incredible musician, and gathering some of the world’s best producers to make a Kanye cover album turned out to produce some fun songs. The opening four-parter is comically over-the-top, but it also sounds fantastic, and I’ve listened to it more times than many more original records. That album’s hit single, “Icon,” features some spectacularly stupid lyrics, but it remains a head-banging, catchy pop record that I listen to regularly while working out.All this preamble is to say that his appointment as creative director of men’s for Christian Louboutin may have been a lazy marketing stunt to get attention for a new division, but that did not mean the results had to disappoint. He has basic, narrow, obvious taste, but his influences are at least in and of themselves compelling, and creative directors do not actually design the clothes themselves. They are but the conductors of a design studio, and so it was possible to imagine that, paired with talented designers, the young Mr. Smith may have been able to produce some interesting work.And yet, he has not. His signature shoes are a pair of bright-red hairy Oxfords and a pair of matching bright-red boots. These are gimmick products, which nobody will buy, but at least they are so generic that one cannot point to one specific reference. That is not true of his multi-pocketed cargo-harnesses — modeled off Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuitton — or his Louboutin sneakers — a blend of Mr. Abloh’s most famous Louis Vuitton sneaker and Mr. West’s first Louis Vuitton shoes — or his new boots, which look as though wet paint has been dripped over them.Margiela implemented this idea far better years ago, using cracked, dried paint that aged gracefully as it flaked; these use faux-wet plastic that looks cheap and off-putting. And the unoriginality doesn’t stop here. The hole-punched loafers lift directly from Off-White. The plastic-cage-covered boots copy the Margiela Reebok collaboration. The nylon-shrouded boots mimic the Margiela x Salomons. And for those sick of hearing the same references repeated; he has also ripped off the Puma Speedcat with his red high-top sneakers — which also echo the newly re-releaed and far superior Margiela Futures — and the pastel canvas low-tops copy the Le Fleur Converses made by his friend Tyler, the Creator.

Jaden Smith’s Louboutin Debut Copies His Influences

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