Timothée Chalamet’s Style Inspiration Is Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith

By
Tom Smyth,
a Vulture news blogger covering TV and pop culture

Wonka?
Photo: Jamie Schwaberow/NBAE via Getty Images

Want to dress like Timothée Chalamet? Look no further than TNT. While filming Elle’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ video alongside his Dune: Part 2 costar Austin Butler, Chalamet revealed that his style icon is Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith, host of TNT’s Inside the NBA. While it’s unlikely that the basketball analyst has worn a harness or mesh top while hosting alongside Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal — there’s clearly something about Smith’s proven fashion sense that Chalamet tries to emulate in his own looks.

“I feel like he has varying style, but he’s also very bold and confident about when he just wants to rock sneakers with a suit. And I admire that,” Chalamet explained in the video. As for Butler, his answer was Timothée Chalamet, which is a cop out. But by the transitive property, that would arguably make Butler’s style icon Smith as well.

When it comes to regrettable style inspiration, Chalamet said one fashion choice he doesn’t look back at fondly was his attempt to emulate Lil B the BasedGod’s beat-up Vans. “I had a really nasty pair of Vans, coming out of high school. I mean, there were holes in the bottom of the Vans, I wore them with no socks. It looked dirty,” he said, explaining to a shocked Butler that he wore the holes in them himself.

Timothée Chalamet’s Style Icon Is Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith