THE Q LIST
With a fan base that ncludes the Kardashians and a Beyoncé, self-taught designer LaQuan Smith is the coolest new kid on the fashion f block
THE fashion world’s newest darling doesn’t come with a posh pedigree or fancy diploma — in fact, he was rejected from top style schools FIT and Parsons.
Still, in just a few short years, 27-year-old LaQuan Smith has managed to make a name for himself designing outfits for the likes of Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner.
“I was self-taught,” Smith tells The Post. “The same way a kid breaks [down] a car and puts it together again, I would rip the seams of my mom’s old dresses and figure out how [they were] made.”
The St. Albans, Queens, native purchased his first patterns at a nearby Walmart when he was 13, stitching together designs using a sewing machine given to him by his grandmother.
Practicing on clothes bound for Goodwill, Smith built up enough confidence to be the only featured designer at his IS 59 juniorhigh school talent show in Springfield Gardens.
“I wrote a letter to the principal explaining why we should have a fashion show,” recalls Smith. “So he gave me a budget of $150. I had crop tops, floral pencil skirts and a lot of denim — I got in trouble with the principal and a few parents because they said the skirts were too short.”
After moving to Delaware in high school, Smith plunged into his work, promoting his first designs on MySpace and taking part-time jobs at Banana Republic and Express. On the weekends, he’d travel to New York to meet with customers and sell pieces to them.
After graduating from high school in 2007 — and ignoring his mother’s pleas to attend community college — Smith moved to New York for good, taking internships in the
fashion departments at New York magazine and BlackBook, which helped him cut his teeth in the sartorial world. In 2009 — when he was only 21 years old — he took a leap of faith and launched his eponymous line.
Smith landed his first celebrity client — Lady Gaga — that same year, when the pop star heard about him through word of mouth. “She wore these 3-D laser-cut metallic leggings [I made],” he says.
He followed up that success with a custommade catsuit for Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” video in 2010. In the past year, Beyoncé wore his black-andwhite bodysuit to the launch of hubby Jay Z’s streaming music service Tidal, and Kim Kardashian wore his black fishnet dress to a yacht party in Cannes. In September — and perhaps most famously — Rihanna donned his green mesh maxidress while performing in Brazil, racking up 610,000 likes on Instagram.
He’s also garnering cool-kid cred in the mainstream world, having landed a recent profile in the New Yorker.
Smith sends his designs to celebrity stylists in the hopes that they get in front of their A-list clients.
“There are times when I do sketches for Beyoncé, and she loves them so much that she requests to see 20 more options,” says Smith. “It’s cool to think that she is wearing a piece to an intimate dinner with Jay Z with no paparazzi around.”
Despite his boldface following, Smith is still surprised when he learns a celeb is a fan of his creations — like when Kendall Jenner wore one of his wool wrap skirts to sister Kylie’s birthday party in August.
“I was in DC in my hotel room, and my phone was blowing up at, like, 3 a.m.,” he recalls. “I thought somebody died.”
For his spring collection, which he’s showing on Sunday at New York Fashion Week, Smith says his inspiration is “hunter glam” — think “army chic.” “Every collection has to be better than the last,” he says.
Now with a workspace in Long Island City, the designer, whose threads are sold at Esti’s boutique in Midwood, Brooklyn, says the LaQuan Smith ideal is a fearless woman who’s comfortable flaunting her sexuality.
“She is the personification of what is modern,” says Smith.
And no, Smith doesn’t hold a grudge against the schools that rejected him — he’s even been invited back as a speaker.
“When FIT reached out to me it was like, ‘Really — you want me to what?’ ” he says. “But I felt it was important to tell the students that I was not accepted to the school. My message was about following your dream despite the obstacles. The key to figuring things out is how to move on.”