What was your favorite music video when you were 17 years old? I had a chance to throw this Thursday waaay back working with 45 students from the pre-college Art Experience Program at the Academy of Art University. Nothing makes one feel old(er) like the company of 45 bright, ambitious teens; and nothing can motivate, inspire and renew faith in the future quite like it. I asked them about the current fashion/music scene and here are eight recent-ish music videos that made my students go wow-now on fashion styling. Who should we be checking next?! Tell me 🙂

Jhené Aiko – Summer 2020

First of all, this is the Summer 2020 we all deserve! At the same time, social distancing never looked cooler than styled by iCON Billingsley. “If Dr. Dre & Andre Leon Talley Collided” goes his bio and it takes exactly that type of assured mix to deliver a whole vibe with two crop tops and a bit of jewelry!

Joji – Run

Quite a few of my students cited various Joji videos, with good reason. His latest is a Mullholland Drive nightmare of goodtime gone bad. Stylist Cody Allen (who assisted on Beychella (!) and runs a nice OnlyFans account) pulled out all the glam stops for this shoot and we’re so here for it all!

Melanie Martinez – Bakery

Melanie Martinez is a twenty five year old ma-ve-ri-ck. She choreographed, designed costumed, styled and directed a music video to a song she wrote and performed. Boom, 2020. Martinez is a master class in millennial pop-cultural confectionery! Quarter life crisis? Nope, not a thing, not here.

Snoh Aalegra – Whoa

If you could get Michael B. Jordan to read you stories while you take a bath (or vice versa), you’d be going whoa too. That said, the layers of this song are revealed in complex wardrobe setups. No wonder it took a squad of Larissa Bechtold, Jason Rembert & Izabelle P. Wilson to style this project.

Rejjie Snow – Cookie Chips ft. MF DOOM & Cam O’bi

Irish rapper has earned his iconoclast reputation in the music industry. Here he is pushing the hip-hop fashion envelope with the help of stylist Calvin How who outfits Rejjie in pink pajamas and bunny ears. This is also a PSA: it being Ireland, a good waterproof windbreaker is a must-have.

SZA – Hit Different

Stylist Dianne Garcia is not stranger to epic works. She is behind the looks in This Is America by Childish Gambino, the most important music video of 2018 (if not the decade). The scale of fashion frontiers in the SZA video is massive, too: from urban post-apocalyptica to homestead harvest. All that, and a list of black-owned fashion retailers to hit your wardrobe differently.

070 Shake – Guilty Conscience

What does one wear to a brawl?! Stylist Peri Rosenzweig referenced every angst-ridden iconic motion picture and the entire L’Uomo Vogue “badboy” catalogue to dress this bittersweet mess. Remember those CK One black-and-white campaigns from the 1990’s? This is backstage: fight club fantasy.

Leah Jenea – Fed Up

Leah Jenea is a 17-old artist; resonating with one’s contemporaries is key to longevity in the creative industries. The Noble Mode duo of Sean Mayers and Crystal Smith styled Jenea in a single couture red gown: a bold move to end any and all hearsay. The Artist has Arrived! Y’all better Witness.

Meanwhile … Keep experiencing art, stay tuned, stay styled!

Check out previous installments of my Style the Beat series here.