TGIF!
I’m heading out in a few hours for a #GirlsTrip to Nassau, Bahamas, to celebrate the impending nuptials of my cousin Genene! But before taking flight, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Girl’s Trip star Jada Pinkett Smith about the movie, her style, and the secrets to her success.
Girl’s Trip is about four friends, Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith and Tiffany Haddish, who set out for a weekend full of fun, dancing, and drinking. The ladies make some mistakes in love and life…some with serious consequences. I had to ask Ms. Smith if she ever looks back with regret on anything she may have done in her youth. She said, “I wouldn’t change a thing. We have to be careful with that. When you’re young, you’re supposed to make mistakes. That’s how you learn. Empirical knowledge is better than any advice you can get from everybody. Falling on your face. Getting some pain. That’s how you learn your biggest lessons. I wouldn’t give any advice to my younger self at all. Because then I wouldn’t be where I am. You just gotta go with the flow.”
Jada is a modern day superwoman. In addition to having an outstanding career, she is also married to a superstar husband–and has superstar children. She attributes her success to, “Just being able to learn as you go. Being able to release all the ideas of what you think you should be doing, and think you should have. We all have a purpose. There’s a power that is far higher than you and I that has us here for a purpose. I just listened. My life is not how I planned it out to be. So I had to really take the steps that were being told to me to take. I wasn’t planning on being married. I wasn’t planning on having a bunch of kids. I wasn’t planning on having one kid, I ended up with a tribe. I just got into a place where I was just doing. [I looked] at what was in front of me. And said, “Ok I’m supposed to go this way. I’m supposed to follow this lead here.” The key to success sometimes is getting out of your own way and trusting your intuition.”
Now on to fashion! She described her style as, “Ecclectic. Glam. And Rugged and Rock and Roll. I like it when I can mix the two. I wore this Paco Rabanne ensemble the other day. It was floral but it had this metal mesh. I love contrast in fashion. I’m always looking for contrast of some kind.”
She continues, “Your clothes are supposed to help you feel a certain way. Today, I feel springy, summery, and feminine. Sometimes I feel that way. Sometimes I want to wear a sharp, edgy suit. I love edge, I love it all. I like to give myself the freedom to explore it all. I feel like that’s what clothes are there for, that’s what hair is there for. People try to put you in a little box. But clothes are for expression!”
Jada has made our Look of the Week several times! So I had to ask about some of her favorite fashion moments. She said, “I have the most fun when I’m dressing for myself, when I’m just out and about. Street fashion. Red carpet is a whole different game. In my business, people who are looking to hire you are looking at the red carpet. Whereas if I’m going to the airport, or if I’m doing press around town, that’s when I have the most fun. Red carpet, I don’t really have a lot of fun with.”
Style certainly runs in the family! Jada and Will Smith’s children Willow and Jaden are known for setting trends and being unapologetically fashion forward, despite any naysayers. She explains, “I don’t really have to encourage them. It’s just in them. They were raised that way. I always say, ‘Your kids don’t do what you say, they do what you do.’ So they watched their parents do it. And so it’s just something they do. They’ve learned that you can’t listen to what people say, honestly. I’ve always told my kids, ‘If you’re doing what everyone else is doing, you’re doing something wrong. The whole point is for all of us to come here and pioneer. And at the end of the day, we’re all pioneers. At the end of the day, we’re not all meant to be here to do what everybody else is doing. We’re meant to be here to do what WE’RE supposed to be doing. Human beings are like snowflakes, there’s not one snowflake that’s just like the other. We’re not meant to be cookie cut out spirits, we’re not meant to be cookie cut out souls. We’re not meant to be cookie cut out anything.”
She continues, “I think they were raised with those concepts. Now, they just do them. They can’t help it. They don’t know anything else. Just as a parent, you reinforce that. When Willow wanted to shave her head at 9. I said, ‘Go ahead, cut it off, I don’t care!’ As long as it’s something you want to do. Don’t cut if off and tell me you want it back.”
“…Jaden wants to wear skirts, fantastic! Wear em. Whatever! I’ve just always been there from the sidelines, cheering them on, saying, ‘Go head, that’s cool as hell, go for it!’ I think having parental encouragement is helpful. But I don’t have to. It’s just them.”
Fabulous! They get it from their mamma!
At any rate, I had a fabulous time interviewing Jada. And hope it won’t be the last!
Be sure to head to the theaters tonight to Girls Trip! It is hilarious and heart warming. Check out a trailer here:
Get your favorite Girlfriends together and make it a Girls Night Out!
Smootches!
*Giveaway alert! Girls Trip is all about friends who get together for a fun, unforgettable weekend, full of partying, salacious encounters, and shenanigans. Leave a comment detailing the craziest thing you’ve ever done with your girls to win a ‘Girls Trip’ giveaway package, including a large Vera Bradley travel tote, makeup bag, sunglasses, T-shirt, and a special ‘Flossy Posse’ necklace inspired by the film and designed by Melody Ehsani.
**Get more details on my look + reflections on the BOMB interview on TheBombLife.com.