Wisdom Kaye is not your average teenager — the 19-year-old TikTok star from Houston, Texas garnered attention with his addicting styling videos and viral Vogue Challenge. With over 3.4 million followers on the platform, the “best-dressed guy” is now a signed model with IMG and has collaborated with brands like Balmain, Dior, American Eagle, and more.

 

In an exclusive interview with V, Wisdom Kaye shared his fashion evolution and thoughts on his career so far below!

 

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TikTok artist and rising style star @wisdm just got his limited edition Gigi Journal t-shirt, bringing out the special glow-in-the-dark capabilities of the collectors piece! ? Want your own t-shirt? V got you covered! Head to the link in bio to order the tee and the Gigi Journal Part II, which features 32 exclusive pieces from global artists and writers derived from over 20,000 submissions! ?? A percentage of the proceeds will be split among four organizations: @blklivesmatter, @naacp, @aclu_nationwide, and @campaignzero (Gigi has also pledged to match that amount with a personal donation!) Stay tuned for an exclusive interview with the social media sensation, arriving next week on vmagazine.com! — T-Shirt Artwork: @gigihadid Talent: @wisdm (@imgmodels) Screen Printing: @lqqkstudio

A post shared by V Magazine (@vmagazine) on Aug 14, 2020 at 2:30pm PDT

 

V Magazine: How did you initially get into fashion and what are some of your top favorite designers?

Wisdom Kaye: I got into fashion during my freshman year of high school because I moved around a lot, and being the new kid was very difficult since I always stuck out. In an effort to fit in, I decided that I wanted to dress like how all the other kids are dressing, which was mainly streetwear at that time. I started getting lots of compliments from people and then I looked more into fashion, and over time, I started to worry less about what people thought about me and it helped me branch out in my style and explore different things.

When I first started getting into fashion, I didn’t really have any favorite designers. But I think one of the first designers that I really fell in love with was Hedi Slimane. I can’t pinpoint what it was but it was at YSL that I really liked the whole skinny silhouette — the boots, the skinny jeans, and the sort of psychedelic rock and Western stuff that he does and his work at Celine right now. I’m also a big fan of Rick Owens and Kim Jones too!

V: What made you join TikTok, and how do you like the fashion community on the platform? Are there any pros and cons you want to share?

WK: At first, I was contemplating making comedy videos, but all of my friends told me that, “Oh, you should show your outfits and stuff like that, you’ll go viral.” And I was like, “Are you sure about that?”

I didn’t think anything much about how I was dressing because I would dress up and look good for myself, but a friend helped me make a short video of outfits I wore that week and it performed really well. And from there, I started to mix it up and make my videos a lot more enjoyable to watch. 

A big pro is seeing the fashion community on TikTok grow so much and seeing people wearing whatever they want to wear. It’s also cool to see all the positive comments on how I inspired them to do something as well.

V: How would you describe your content and also your fashion sense?

WK: I would say, deliberately versatile and constantly expanding. Because personally, I always try to mix things up. I just want to explore different things because there’s so much when it comes to fashion that one can really do. So I’m always trying to make different trends, different edits, and also just growing my own personal style, so it really is deliberately versatile and constantly expanding.

V: You gained a lot of attention from your Vogue Challenge TikTok video. What was your initial reaction to the attention, and how would you say that video and TikTok in general changed your life?

WK: I was actually surprised because I kind of hopped on the trend pretty late, mainly because I wasn’t too confident doing it after seeing other people’s posts. I was like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t compete.” 

I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to do it, but once I did, the reactions were insane! The video did really well and I got interviews for that. TikTok in general has really been a huge part of all the stuff that I’ve been able to achieve, like getting featured on Vogue or my followers on Instagram, so I really appreciate the platform.

V: What’s your favorite go-to outfit?

WK: I prefer to wear an all-black ensemble since it typically can work for most occasions. So I’ll go for a pair of black skinny jeans, some boots, maybe throw a cardigan or a blazer over my top.

V: How would you describe a day in your life? What’s your creative process when it comes to creating videos and do you ever run out of ideas or feel pressured to post often?

WK: That’s a good question, I don’t think I really do anything too crazy. Like most kids, I wake up and I’ll probably eat one or two meals. Then I’ll make about 1-2 TikToks and the way I go about that is by using my notes app on my phone. I get inspired by music a lot, so when I hear a song that resonates with me, I start to put the video together in my head and figure out how to execute my ideas. I’ll maybe even make a schedule of content for the week because I have so many ideas, so I don’t really feel too pressured to post. If I’m gonna post a video, I want it to be a good one though.

V: What are your future goals and what advice do you have for content creators?

WK: For aspiring content creators, I would say what helped me get to where I am right now is just always trying to do something different. If you want to do a trend, try remixing it and bring something new to it because I feel like that’s really what helped me grow. 

On my account, I started off doing regular outfit videos, and then I started editing. Soon after, I began disproving myths in fashion and people really enjoyed that. I recommend being as creative and original as possible while also trying to teach the people watching.

This isn’t really fashion related, but in terms of my goals, I want to try voice acting and modeling as well. I would also really like to have my own clothing line too.