Jaden Smith has been hired by Christian Louboutin as the first creative director for its men’s line. The American rapper and actor, who is the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, is moving to Paris to start work and is expected to present his first designs in January during men’s fashion week in the French capital, WWD reported.
He will “oversee the creation of four collections a year across shoes, leather goods and accessories, along with developing campaigns, events and immersive experiences,” the report added.
“This is the one of the biggest honors of my life, and I feel a lot of pressure to be able to live up to everything that Christian has done for the house, and also stepping into such a serious role,” Smith told WWD. “When he reached out to me, I was just blown away, because of how similar we are and how much we like to do things in a similar manner.”
“I can’t wait to show the world what we’ve been working on,” he added. “I think that the universe of Christian Louboutin men’s has so much potential.”
Smith was the only candidate for the job. With this appointment, Louboutin said he will have more time to concentrate on the women’s side of his business. He also looks to take advantage of Smith’s communication and creative skills, including his millions of Instagram followers, to boost the men’s category, which makes up 24 percent of the business but has not been performing as expected in recent times.
Louboutin said he would still oversee the men’s category and let Smith take the lead on design, image making and social media. “Because of his generation…there is a kind of mentality that is very different.”
“When I design shoes, I don’t think about a campaign at all,” Louboutin, 62, said to WWD. “I think about the colors, the materials, but I don’t think about the narrative.…(Jaden) is going to show the brand’s vision in a much more visible way.”
“He’s someone who’s very curious, who’s very panoramic, who does a lot of things, who’s interested and who connects all the things he does,” Louboutin said of the 27-year-old star.
“One of the first questions he had was about our sustainability efforts, because it’s important to him. And that is very, very, very good because we have started to do a lot of important work around sustainability.”
“We have very different backgrounds, but we have a very similar mentality.
“He has a way of seeing things, of digesting things, of transforming that really connects with my way of functioning,” Louboutin added of “The Karate Kid” star.
