Does Anyone Know the Most Influential Person at Fashion Week?
Dressed in a dark-wash denim set with a colorful, brushstroke pattern and black mesh gloves, Jay Guapõ, New York City’s prince of TikTok, hit the Luar runway. He’d teased the moment to his 3.3 million followers a couple of days prior with a frantic mini-vlog during his fitting for the show: “Real model shit? I’m not a real fucking model. I’m losing my fucking mind. I overthink a lot.” Soft, melodic music played and strobing lights illuminated the catwalk as Guapõ, a codified New York celebrity, emerged. But around me, no one from the fashion establishment, apart from a 21-year-old designer named Fallou, batted an eye. They must not have known that one of fashion’s most influential people (no, not a nepo baby or supermodel) had just walked the runway.
Over the weekend, I joined Guapõ (whose real name is Jason) at the Luar offices. When I arrive, he’s sitting on a long, white couch next to the creative director of the brand, Raul Lopez, watching other models walk for their casting. Quietly, he looks out the window at the New York skyline.
Lopez turns to him. “The kids love you,” he says. Guapõ smiles and bashfully acknowledges with a courteous, “Really?” It’s true: Throngs of teens and young adults chase him around wherever he goes, sometimes creating mosh pits of madness as they take videos of him and try to catch a glimpse of him. While his outfit (a brown baggy tee, extremely oversize low-slung jeans held up by a silver belt, massive silver chains dangling from his neck, and a leopard-print backpack shaped like a Pokémon character) matches his loud, chaotic style of online content, which mostly consists of pranks, memes, and shit-posting, his in-person demeanor actually manifests as quiet and subdued.
After a brief practice run in the hallway outside of the casting room, Guapõ shows Lopez and the rest of the designer’s team his walk. He sheepishly walks up and down the room.
“This time with more aggression,” says Lopez.
“Just mean-mug?” Guapõ asks.
“YESSSSSS, MEAN-MUG!” Lopez and his crew respond emphatically.
This time, when Guapõ takes his turn around the room, he stares forward intensely and picks up his pace. The crew on the couch are enamored: “Now he’s feeling himself!”
Guapõ, who shot into internet stardom in the past year, is now officially hitting the mainstream. Last month, the TikToker was featured in an advertisement in Times Square, and this week he’s in a Marc Jacobs Heaven campaign. “When I was young, I swear to God, I knew I was gonna be famous,“ he tells me. We’re sitting in the backseat of an Uber from the fitting on the way to his next gig.
Guapõ, who grew up in the Bronx and calls his childhood “fun” but also “the trenches,” had originally wanted to find work as a “safari guy,” like Steve Irwin, traveling the world looking for rare animals. But at some point in his teens, he realized that career plan wasn’t likely to pan out. “I’d never been on a plane, so I was like, Fuck it,” he says. “I was lost. I didn’t know what I was gonna be. I just knew I was going to be something.”
From the age of 14, Guapõ has been posting on YouTube, but his videos didn’t gain traction until he started using TikTok in 2020. There, he pushes out content, ironically lip-syncing to Lana Del Rey, pranking his mom, or creating skits with his friends around New York. His work has made him a local celebrity, especially with kids growing up in the city. Even though Guapõ tells me he typically loves the spotlight, he admits he felt nervous prior to his New York Fashion Week debut.
“I hope the crowd knows who I am so they know I’m not a pro or something. It’s my first time,” he says. “I’m an overthinker. I overthink the littlest things.” On Monday night, though, those nerves appeared nowhere to be found. Guapõ paced down the runway, in pace with the music and a slight frown across his face. The editors seated around me watched Guapõ silently as the bass vibrated through the room. One of them turned to me and gave her verdict: “he’s good!”