Look around: Julez Smith just might be walking right past you. On the train, down a busy New York City street, in his hometown of New Orleans, or, increasingly, on the runways of the hottest designers.
Smith sent the internet into a frenzy last February when he made his runway debut for the New York-based brand Luar. His mother, Solange, aunt Beyoncé, and grandmother Tina Knowles were all in the front row as he was welcomed into the fashion world. (Having your people show up and show out to support your career just hits different.)
Almost one year after that show, Smith is high off another successful men’s fashion week in Paris, walking in four shows. We catch him in New York City, which is a pit stop before he heads to NOLA to walk in the Bode Rec. spring 2025 fashion show at GQ Bowl, and Rhuigi Villaseñor’s exclusive fall-winter 2025 RHUDE showcase at the House of Verizon, two events held in concurrence with Super Bowl LIX. During NYFW, he walked Luar again, showing how much can change in one rookie year, his stride even more confident.
When he strolls into our MOMENT by Teen Vogue cover shoot, beelining toward the racks of clothing, it’s easy to overlook the fact that this entire production is for him. His nonchalance partnered with his striking blue eyes and stoic demeanor adds to the mystery. If not for his uncanny resemblance to his mother and grandmother you might think he was just another run-of-the-mill, laid-back, young Black man working in fashion. But if you asked Smith, he’d say that is exactly what he is.
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The 20-year-old model belongs to one of the most notable and private music families to ever exist, a heritage that must come with an almost mindless understanding that in every room he walks into, someone knows who he is — and the legacy that is his.
At a young age, Julez Smith has a sureness about his personal style that isn’t always evident in someone barely out of their teens – he comfortably switches between a full Burberry suit and a bright green Bode tracksuit. That confidence could stem from his old soul; between the rounds of hip-hop and R&B playing on the studio speakers, Smith asks to add a few songs to the queue, records by Deniece Williams and Minnie Riperton, tracks released decades before he was born.
“I don’t like to be turnt when I’m shooting,” he says, laughing and stepping back in front of the camera. His musical direction gives a new challenge. I queue up, “I Like the Way (The Kissing Game)” by Hi-Five. He shouts out, “Who put this on? Look at you matching the vibes.” Between outfit changes, Smith makes one more request: “I’mma play some of my mom’s old sh*t.” Suddenly, “Crush” by Solange fills the room and you can tell it makes him feel right at home.
Smith's love for his mother is omnipresent. In the few hours we spend with him, he brings her up often of his own volition. When we arrive on the 64th floor of the World Trade Center for our interview, he stares out toward the Statue of Liberty through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows. I ask if he’s scared of heights. He laughs in response. “Hell nah. I've been over there. Me and my mom jet-skied.”
That same love for his mother is felt in every anecdote he shares about his family. To him, they’re just people — his people. “The environment I was raised in, I just go through life how I see it,” Smith says about his relaxed demeanor. “My mom is chill. Everybody in my family just vibes. So, outside of work, we be chilling. It's real family time. We go to lunch, go to dinners, and watch movies. It's a regular life.”
And while to him it may feel ordinary, he also recognizes that his family is extraordinary. His love for them could never allow him to deny their stature in our culture, but in many ways he doesn’t see their renown as an extension of himself. That fame belongs to them. His journey belongs to him.
Below, we talked with Smith about his rising modeling career, his goals for the future, and how his Southern roots shaped his independence and integrity.
I got there and at first, I'll be honest, I only had one show that was confirmed. So I was flying there just really to do that show. I knew there were a couple of other brands that were interested, but it wasn't locked in. And then I got there and my agent’s phone started booming and then a day went by and I got four shows confirmed. Then it was worth it.
I think my highlight [was] that 424 show because it was more a performance show than just straight walking. We had to bump into the wall and act sad and do all that, so it was different for me and it was new. So I enjoyed that aspect of it.
I got a call from my agent and he was just like, "Oh, it's a show in New Orleans." And he didn't even say what brand, I just heard New Orleans and I was like, "All right, cool, we're there. We're going to do it." And then I heard it was Bode. I like Bode. My mom put me on to Bode when I was a kid. I was probably 14, going to the stores. I remember all their pieces were hella expensive, but I love the brand and I'm excited to walk for them, and I'm excited to be back home.
I think when I was younger, I want to say I went when I was a kid, but not since I've been conscious. But I actually won't be there. I leave the day of the Super Bowl, so I'm not going to the game, but it's okay. I'm a basketball man. Not really [football]. That was my dad. My dad played football.
Yeah, for a cool week my phone didn't stop really dinging. It was a pretty hectic five days, and then I had to turn around and do Versace a week after that, so I had to lock back in.
It was mostly just people surprised. They didn't think I was going to hit the model scene.
Yeah, I mean I grew up playing basketball, so a lot of my folks, I was really trying to go to the NBA, that was my main goal and then I've always been into fashion and I was working with Luar, like I was doing intern stuff with them, and then Raul one day was just like, "You want to walk in the show?" And I was like, "Hell, yeah, why not?" And then that was it, it was history.
Yeah, I was interning with them. Raul's been a family friend since I was a kid. That's one of my mom's closest friends, and so my mom was just like, "You should step your feet into the fashion world." And I think Raul was the perfect introduction.
Everything. I was going to get coffees for people. I was opening boxes, packing up boxes, like real intern work.
I want to do everything organic. So I'm not the type of person where I'm like, "All right, cool," just because the name is what the name is, I'm not going to go fishing for stuff I know I can go get. I'm going to do the same castings that other models [are] doing. I'm waiting in the same lines. It's going to be the same process and it feels better doing it organically. It's real life.
I'm not going to say more difficult… I'm going to say it does open a lot of doors when it comes to brands reaching out and stuff like that, but I do think from a model standpoint, like other models, it causes a little static because they see [me] like, "All right, cool, who is this new kid on the block?" You feel me?
So I think it plays both sides. I don't think it's a negative or a positive. There's more doors open for sure, but there's also like, "Oh, this is just a nepo baby. This is a nepo kid." When in reality I am going to do the same exact process that everybody else is doing, but people don't know that. They don't see behind the scenes, they only see what it is.
Once my junior year was over and it was only small colleges reaching out to go play, I was like, "I ain't trying to just go play for a random school." So I was like, "All right, I'm going to put my feet into the second-closest thing I have."
I've always been into fashion. I've always wanted to take pictures and be fly and all that. So it wasn't anything brand new, it just was like, now I'm going to shift all this focus I [had] on basketball and I'm putting the same effort into modeling.
I messed around with the production side, making beats and stuff. I think I like more executive producing, so I like putting people together and making a sound, but I never wanted to rap, never wanted to sing, never wanted to do that.
Nah, never. I did music class. I had a clip, that sh*t went viral, but it was me in music class my freshman year of high school, and we had a studio at our school so a part of the class was to make a song. So I just went in there rapping and I ended up posting it on my Story, which I guess was my mistake… it went viral. But no, I'm not good at rapping. It ain't my cup of tea.
I still play basketball every day I get the chance. I'm currently designing my own fashion brand, so that's what I'm working on this year. I went to Parsons for a little bit just to really learn the ins and outs of designing, like the real basis of it, but yeah that's the goal this year, to start my brand.
Yeah, it is going to be everything. It is going to be women's. I'm going to try to make dresses and stuff. It is really just me. And, of course, the factories, but I don't have anybody designing for me. This is all me. I'm going to try… like workout wear for women, try to make some dresses and some cool little skirts and stuff. But mostly men's stuff.
I remember everything. I think I lived in New Orleans for nine years. My primary childhood was all in the South and it taught me how to have manners, how to treat people with respect, and the basis of life. It's not fake out there… learning, taking from each city, and putting that all together as I get older, everything just works out.
[New Orleans is] more real than everywhere else. Walking outside and really having to talk to your neighbors. I knew every single one of my neighbors I grew up with in New Orleans. In any other city, I couldn't tell you who my neighbors were. It's different. At least in New Orleans, it's a real community city.
So, if you are working at the bakery and I'm coming to your bakery, I'm not going three days without getting to know who you are… it's gonna be, "All right, cool, now you're going to be my extra auntie." It's just a closed-off world everywhere else I've been, so I think that's the main difference… everyone in New Orleans, they know each other.
I went to public school. It was [all] basketball. In the aspect of social life, I think it was in my younger years [that] I had to really figure out, like, "Okay, I am who I am and I come from the people I come from." But ain't nothing different about me than the next. I bleed the same blood, I breathe the same air as everybody else. My biggest thing was communicating [with] other people.
I think a lot of people were expecting me to just stay on my own type of timing or treat everybody differently, but it was like, "Sh*t, we all human." I'm here, the same reason y'all here. I'm here to hoop, I'm here to go to class, chill, make friends. You feel me? But high school was cool.
It never was specific moments. My family has just been fly my whole life. Since I was a baby, I just remember my mom stepping out in clothes I ain't never seen and seeing my auntie dressing her tour costumes, and my grandma is really the pivotal point of our family when it comes to fashion. She started it off. So hearing the stories from my family about my grandma sewing stuff and just putting it all together, I would say it's been like a 16- to 17-year journey of me falling in love with fashion, if I'm being honest.
I'm going to be honest. I'm a very soap, cold-water-on-the-face guy. My grandma, she deep-washed my hair when it's about that time, but I mean I use Cécred on my everyday hair, just conditioner and shampoo. Got my Invisaligns. I don't know, I don't really have that much of a routine, to be honest.
I was blonde for a majority of my childhood. I had blonde waves for a little bit. My experimental ages was for sure my childhood. Now I'm braided up every day. I started the slickback for Paris. My mom, she tried it out and was like, "Yo, I think they'll like this." And they ended up liking it. So now I'm rocking with the slickback a little bit, but yeah, braids are my staple, though.
I would say you got to keep your body right, got to keep your skin right. That's the basis of it. Take a lot of digitals, focus on your face. These brands, I don't think they really are looking at our outfits as much as people think. So just focus on your appearance and be yourself. Don't change because you think a brand is going to like something. Just be yourself and if they rock with it, they rock with it. If not, there's a million brands out there. You don't got to pinpoint one and change yourself.
My mom likes suits, so I'll probably find some cool, boxy YSL suits for her and just take her out to dinner.
That's my twin!
Everything. I'm not going to lie, I grew up with my grandma. I'm a grandma baby. I grew up, of course, with my mom and my pops and everybody, but my best friend I would say [is] probably my grandma. She taught me how to be a young man. She taught me the rules of the house. She taught me how to be a man of the house. She taught me how to respect others and everything, and she keeps me up on my fly, too. She be sending me clothes and all types of stuff. My grandma, she's my dog, man.
Going to school and kids just being like, "Oh, your mama is your mama. Your auntie is your auntie." So, I think from as long as I can remember, first grade [or] kindergarten, it just was what it was. I don't know, I let other people tell me that. I never was the one to be like, "Oh, yeah, my folks is who my folks is." Like I said, I'm going to school the same reason y'all going to school. Ain't nothing too much different about me.
No. I done got so used to it, it's not really weird… I'm like, "It's just my mama's stomach." It's cool, though, I guess, the world seeing me grow up. It's a different lens… but it could get weird sometimes. People having their weird comments and all that stuff. I would say it's a blessing to just have people that support us that don’t know me from a can of paint.
It's been protector mode since everybody was born. Just trying to be a positive role model as they get older. I think that's been my main goal. And it's cool, they know their cousin is a model now, so it's like, all right, that might rub off on one of the kids… I'm really close to my family, so being the oldest is like, I got to set the tone, set the standard for them, make sure I'm in the same direction that I would want them to go.
My baby cousin Rumi, I seen her not too long ago, before I went to Paris actually, and I was packing my bag and she was like, "Where are you going?" I was like, "I'm going to Paris." She was like, "Oh, you're going to work." And that was my first time where any of my cousins or siblings was like, "Okay, yeah, he got a job now. My cousin's going to work." They’re asking me questions like, "You drive now?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm 20 now. I ain't the same 15-year-old when you were born, you feel me." But that type of stuff warms my heart, just knowing that my younger folks in my family look up to me and I'm a role model to them.
Can it be like a random fun fact?
I would say I'm addicted to pizza. And I can't really get out of this phase of just eating pepperoni pizza. I'm addicted.
But another fun fact or just something that I would want people to know, I think people don't know that I was raised in New Orleans. I think a lot of people think I was raised in LA and in the Hills, but I spent I would say half of my life down there. And I think that that will open a couple of people's eyes, just to see [that] yeah, I'm a Southern baby. I'm just like everybody else in my family. We are all from the South.
No, but every day my grandma sends me a prayer. [shows iPhone screen]
Oh yeah, it's a real prayer. My grandma got everybody in the pen! We are religious, so, every day I just read my prayers and I'm close to God. I pray to God every day, every morning, every night, before my meals. I think He is the reason why any of us are doing anything. Growing up in a household where God was real and God was a part of our life and we cherish Him and praise Him every day. I think it guided us to be where we are.
Six months, I'll say still killing it in fashion, doing what I'm supposed to do on my end. Hopefully, get a crib by then. That's my other main goal this year.
Yeah. Real spot. A year? Probably doing the same thing… I'll be 21, so experiencing what you experience at 21. [Laughs]
I'm young, so I'll be 22 in two years. Hopefully, I'm still running the model game. And then five years, probably shifting my focus to my brand and kind of cooling off on the modeling. I want to master having a real clothing brand. I don't want no quick Instagram, TikTok brand. I want a real store. I want a store, fashion shows, all of that. So yeah, by the time three, four years come around, hopefully that's where I'm going to be at.
When I get old and I'm done with working, I'm going to be a Texas boy. I'm going to be in Houston just because all my family is from there and I feel like that's where my roots come from, so probably just go back home.
I want to get a pet. I want to find an animal that I won't get super annoyed taking care of. I've never been a pet person, but I want to open up to find one, whether it's a frog, whether it's a guinea pig, something. But I've always dreamt as a kid to have a cool pet, so hopefully in the next year. I'm still exploring. I know I don't want a dog, I don't want a cat.
Dogs [need] too much attention. And it's not that I don't want to give attention to a dog, it's just I don't have the time to sit at my house and take care of a pup. I really want a tiger or something exotic, but I know it's hard to get it in the US.
Yeah. No, I'm for real. I want something exotic... Just one. Just one pet. I don't want a zoo, I don't want a farm.
You feel me? A giraffe. Something I could take care of, but yeah, that's my outside-of-work dream.
I think I'm taking the crown of the flyest in my fam. That's what I'm trying to go towards. But shoot, just making a name for myself in fashion has been a goal of mine… Carving out a name for myself in anything I do, being great at it.
That's a good question. I think it just comes with age. I think a lot of people rush kids from certain families to start their career young. I still was in school, I still was hooping. It was a regular life until I got out of school. I think I've just come to the age of maturity, to the point where I can really work and really focus on what I want to do.
Credits
Talent Julez Smith at Next Management
Photographer Emily Malan
1st Assistant Abby Curtis
2nd Assistant Jabari Wimbley
Design Director Emily Zirimis
Designer / Production Liz Coulbourn
Associate Visuals Editor / Production Lead Bea Oyster
Sittings Editor Samantha Gasmer
Custom Backdrop Maisie Sattler
Grooming Courtesy of Sandradene Fearon at Next Management
Editorial Credits
Editor-in-Chief Versha Sharma
Executive Editor Danielle Kwateng
Style Director Alyssa Hardy
Senior Talent Casting Manager Gabrielle Seo
Culture Editor / MOMENT Lead Kaitlyn McNab
Associate Culture Director P. Claire Dodson
Video Director Ali Farooqui
Associate Director of Audience Development & Analytics Mandy Velez Tatti
Senior Social Media Manager Honestine Fraser
