It’s easy to make fun of Jaden Smith. Too easy. His biggest blockbuster move to date was garbage. His tweets are profoundly dumb, like that jackass you knew in college who took Philosophy 101 and suddenly had a new #deep #thought about anything and everything. And, sometimes, he likes to go out in public dressed like his favorite superheroes.
It’s that last thing that’s eliciting the most Jaden ether on the e-streets currently, since he showed up to wedding of the century dressed not in black tie formal, but as Batman. White Batman, to be specific. But although Jaden is giving little sister Willow a run for weirdest second generation celeb kid out (no easy feat), it's time to take a stand and ask whether slander for his comic book sartorial choices is really that warranted. Of course, you nor I would never dream of hitting the block in that ill Party City look. But, I’d assume most people reading this were too concerned with not socially fucking up and being slayed as a pariah at the age of 15.
In a time where teenagers are progressively too cool for school, especially when knowing that any fuck-up can be permanently posted online, which is extra true for those caught up in the Hollywood sphere, it’s kind of refreshing to see Jaden embracing adolescent tendencies. The fact that he’ll fuck around and rock a utility belt and cape to a wedding—notorious perfectionist Kanye West’s wedding at that—is actually what you’d like to see a barely teenaged famous kid doing. It’s dumb but in a goofy way, unlike his tweets which are just plain bizarre. It’s almost innocent, suggesting he hasn’t been engulfed by the Hollyweird bubble yet.
It's blatantly attention-seeking, sure. It’s also kind of fearless. Kris Jenner described the Batman look as such: "It was kind of fabulous. When I saw him, I’m like…I love him so much. He’s got a cute personality, and some humor in him too. He’s really a cool guy.  When I saw him, I thought…Only he could pull this off, it was fantastic."
That can probably be read as just another bullshit politically correct face-saving Kris Jenner statement (she no doubt gave herself a headache in trying not to roll her eyes) but she does have a point. Dude’s out here on dates and shit dressed like Iron Man and with girls equally famous, not groupies who’ll go along with whatever. The number one rule of having your own personal sense of style is waving middle fingers at the haters and sticking to whatever it is you want to do. Kudos to the kid for embracing his batshit impulses instead of trying to out-Givenchy Kanye. Most teenage years are wasted worrying about perception and being over self-conscious. Jaden, on the other hand, wants to wear superhero customes. And so, he wears superhero costumes.
And yea, it's not like he's got a regular Avengers-rotation that he stunts in on the regular. On a daily basis he's on the average all-black-everything wave in fits that range from face-palming to respectable. But showing out in such a public forum suggests a bold DGAF attitude that is only juts beginning to manifest itself, one that might end with him becoming the swag heir of Macaulay Culkin. But maybe, just maybe it could end up warranting his legacy as Son of The Fresh Prince. Big Will hasn't commented on the wedding attire yet, but last year when Jaden was asked to comment on his dad's red carpet style, father and son had this exchange:
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Jaden Smith: not quite presidential material yet, but clearly a fan of the bold choice.
In five years when Jaden looks back on the Caped Crusader wedding, the Tony Stark stroll, and the 2015 Oscars when he'll probably come through as black-and-white flag Captain America, he'll laugh at how stupid it was. Laugh, but not cringe I hope. Because what else is being 15 good for if not doing laughably dumb shit?
Frazier Tharpe is a staff writer at Complex.
He's thinking of going to the club dressed as Thor this weekend.
He tweets here.
