What are Jaden Smith and SZA actually doing as fashion creative directors?

Leading a brand is more than having good taste or impeccable personal style, it requires actual skills like planning collections and managing a label’s legacy. Celebrities may generate constant online chatter and clicks but that doesn’t always translate into sales, Boyd-Griffith points out. At a time when tariffs run high and everyone’s feeling the squeeze, “consumers aren’t rushing out to buy a product just because a celebrity is attached, unless it’s with a more accessible high-street brand,” he adds. “These partnerships often feel like buzz noise.”

Boyd-Griffiths predicts that we’ll soon see the pendulum swing back in favor of the technically trained. “In reality, the industry is moving in the opposite direction. We’re seeing a renewed focus on ‘designers’ designers, those who’ve had their heads down, cutting their teeth in-house at brands for decades,” he says. This season alone, several such names made their debuts like Nicholas Aburn at Area, Dario Vitale at Versace, Miguel Castro Freitas at Mugler, and more.

In an algorithm-driven world, celebrity appointments make sense on a superficial level that’s yet to bring real dividends back to brands. What is clear is that the industry is in crisis mode: As white male creative directors play musical chairs with high-end brands, tapping musicians to helm one of fashion’s top seats feels like a different side of the same coin. Fame alone might not be enough to sustain a fashion brand, but perhaps it’s a risk worth taking anyway.