Jared Muros’ Instagram bio simply reads “I do everything,” and, when it comes to what’s cool in culture, that checks out. The 20-something makes music, has worked as a casting director for Tyler The Creator, Adidas, and Nike, worked on projects with The Weeknd and Jennifer Lopez, modeled for brands, hosted free clothing giveaways to kids looking for drip they can’t afford, and built a following off his impeccable taste and love for conversing with people around the country (and soon the world) about fashion.
He’s quite literally living the style influencer’s dream. Or even multiple dreams, all at once. But how?
Is Muros some sort of rich kid nepo baby riding a wave of connections and access? Nope. He’s a suburban LA kid who grew up bouncing between Boyle Heights (the start of East LA) and Whittier (the final stop between LA County and “the OC” and, coincidentally, my hometown) who finessed his passion for style into a booming career. His success is a testament to hard work, good taste, and the fact that style seems to have overtaken music as the thing people are the most eager to talk about.
“I was a skater kid,” Muros says of his early interest in style. “Supreme was just the go-to. Everybody was into it. It started small with that, with Supreme and BAPE and just the stuff that everybody likes… the stuff people buy at Zumiez.”
When Muros hit high school, his tastes started to elevate from streetwear to higher-end pieces.
“I started getting into more designer clothes and just elevating from high-end streetwear Supreme stuff to like, Acne Studios or Alexander McQueen. I’m selling chips at school just so I can save up to buy a pair of Margielas. Some people will save up to get their hair done, to get their nails done. I would just save up to buy fashion pieces.”
While Muros’ love for fashion was evolving, he was also building up a talent for interviewing people. After consuming a steady diet of Vine and YouTube clips and savvying what travels on social media, Muros began positioning himself as a modern internet personality — vlogging his high school experience and documenting his day to day.
“I was in school always interviewing people,” he says. “I was doing daily vlogs, I’d be at football games, I’d be interviewing kids in the stands or I’d be at lunch, just talking to kids, doing little interviews here and there for the people within my city to watch. Over the years, it started growing into me hitting the streets. I’ve been at it for years — it was more so just a hobby and it ended up just working out for me in the best way… Just within the past couple of months, I actually started really making money and just having this be my full-time job. It’s a blessing for sure. ”
We linked up with Muros over Zoom to talk about his rise from suburban skater kid who would take the bus to window shop at Fairfax to a growing internet fashion personality who hits up New York and Paris fashion week.
I saw on your Instagram you casted something for GOLF le FLEUR — how did that come about?
Yeah! It’s funny, back in, I want to say 2021, I picked up a job as a casting director. I do a lot of modeling jobs, a lot of gigs here and there, do a lot of music video appearances. I’ve worked with The Weeknd, Tyler, the Creator, Jennifer Lopez, and some big names on sets. And just being around in that industry, I fell in and got a job as a casting director for a minute.
And a lot of jobs I cast — almost all of Tyler’s Call Me if You Get Lost — almost all those videos, I help put a hand in there to help cast those.
I wanted to get some insight into your process. How do you go about casting? What are you looking for? Obviously, I feel like casting maybe 20 years ago, it was very specific, Eurocentric beauty leaning. Just want to know what you’re looking for when you’re casting.
Something I like about nowadays is that anybody can model. You don’t have to be six foot two, blonde, blue eyes, to be a model. I’m not six foot. I’m not the perfect beauty standard. And still, I’ve done modeling gigs for Balenciaga and Apple.
It’s just about knowing the brand you’re working with; knowing the artists you’re working with. Let’s say it would be Tyler, we would want more eccentric looks — more colors popping on their photos, versus if it was a video for The Weeknd, he would be going for a dark nightclub, Hollywood theme. It’s really case to case, but just having an eye for really what the artist is looking for.
How did you get into that? How do you go from Whittier kid interviewing footballers to casting music videos?
This was nearing when COVID was ending. Something I’ve always wanted to do was get into modeling. But I would always tell myself, “Oh no, it’s not for me. I can’t do it.” And then one day I was like, “You know what? Fuck it. I’m just going to try.”
So I would watch YouTube videos every day. “How to become a model, how to be in a music video, how to do this, how to do that.” Until I started getting some of the sauce from watching videos, TikToks, reading articles. I ended up just following literally a thousand different casting pages, a bunch of casting directors, a bunch of producers. My Instagram following was probably crazy at the time. A couple thousand people who were just all in the industry that had no idea who I was.
At the time, I was always super specific with my Instagram. I had to make sure the colors were good, my aesthetic was popping. I had the perfect outfits on there so I could get cast. And then one day, this casting page that I followed posted, “Hey, we’re hiring. No experience necessary. Swipe up and we’ll send you the resume.”
I DMed them and to my surprise, I got a response. I got the application, and then they just ended up choosing me out of hundreds, thousands of people. And I was like, “Yo, why me?” And they’re like, “Oh, you have cool Instagram.”
Even when I was casting, a big thing would be looking at people’s Instagram profiles. Do they know how to dress? Just small things like that that we would look for.
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You have a very curated sense of style. What’s your personal style philosophy?
Don’t try to fit into what everybody else is doing. There’s trends that come and go, and if you just keep chasing the trends, I feel like you’ll never be able to find your own style.
The way I found what I like is just going out thrifting. Let’s say I would go find a pair of baggy jeans and I’m like, “Oh, I like these.” Now I know, okay, I like baggy jeans. And then I go out, I find out what kind of jackets I like from thrifting. And then I can move that over into wanting to buy a designer piece. I know what fits me.
Just don’t chase the styles, because you got to learn how to be yourself, learn what you like. Nowadays, all the kids are wearing Rick Owens Ramones. They’re wearing Margiela all black. But doing stuff like that, you won’t really find what you like. You’re just wearing what you see people wear on TikTok; you’re copying people on Instagram. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but at some point, you want to find out how can you be yourself.
Who are some of your style icons?
I don’t want to say it’s necessarily people that I look up to, but it’s more eras and movements. Recently, I’ve been really into the 2008-2010 style. When people would wear a bunch of animal prints and it would be super loud.
That’s just something I’ve really been into. Very Y2K, stuff like that. That’s what I grew up on, and I couldn’t wear clothes like that when I was growing up. My mom would dress me when I was in elementary school. So now that I can wear what I want, I’m going back and looking at the styles and like, “Oh, I really like this. Let me see how I can incorporate that to now in 2023.”
Do you feel more yourself or more comfortable in your own skin when you’re highly stylized the way you are? Do you feel like you’re expressing your personality through what you’re wearing?
Yeah, for sure. A hundred percent. Even nowadays, when I’m making videos trying to get out to as many people as possible, I think can someone resonate with you within the first couple seconds? That’s just what it is nowadays, being on TikTok in a fast-paced moving world.
People will know if they like me or not within the first two seconds because, let’s say, the jacket I’m wearing. Because of the outfits or the colors that I have on. So it’s pretty simple, I just want people to be able to look at me and be like, “Oh yeah, for sure. He has his own style.”
It just wouldn’t make me comfortable if I was out on the street and someone had the exact same shirt as me. Copy and paste. I just want to be able to be different, but still be myself at the same time. It’s just what makes me comfortable.
Do you think that is an added pressure on this generation because people need to be able to resonate with others in two-second intervals? I’m not saying everybody wants to be social media or TikTok famous, but is that something that people are thinking about on a subconscious level? Because no matter who you are, you’re using social media, so you’re going to be expressing yourself visually.
It definitely does something to you for sure. You could see 10 videos within the span of 15 seconds until you find something that you like. But I feel like it definitely does make people want to be a little more different or a little more “out there.” But if you don’t do it with your outfits, you’re going to do it with your voice or you’re going to do it with your personality.
I think it has its good and its bad aspects — people are definitely trying to be themselves or be more into their skin because everything is so fast-paced. I do it with my outfits. Someone else might do it a different way. But at the end of the day, that is what makes you unique.
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What advice or strategies do you have for someone who’s looking to carve out a style identity?
What I would like to do is just go window-shop. When I was a kid, I would take the bus and just head out to, say, Rodeo Drive, let’s say Melrose, and walk into all the stores. I would just look. Like, “Oh, wow, this is so cool. Oh, this is dope.” I’d just be walking through the clothes, stuff I couldn’t even buy. I can’t buy no Balenciaga hoodie, but I would like, “Yo, this is the style that I really like.” And just learn your own wiring, learn your mind. Learn “what does my body like?”
And even going thrifting, that’s where you can actually buy pieces that you can afford and see what kind of styles you like. That’s a good way to learn. And then start going to stores, and then once you have more money, you’re able to buy stuff that you know you like. Because I feel like when you have a lot of money and you don’t have a style, you end up wasting money. You’ll just buy things that you think people think should be cool, but they’re not.
So go based on intuition? Just whatever draws your eye, whatever speaks to you?
Yeah, for sure. I don’t buy a pair of pants because I’m like, “Oh, this would look good with this.” I just buy stuff that I think is cool, put it all together, and then just have little runways in my own closet. And be like, “Oh, this looks good. This looks good. This doesn’t.”
Just play with the clothes you have now. See what fits well together, and just have outfits in the back of your mental, ready to go.
What brands do you think are killing it right now?
Personally, I really like Acne Studios. I love that they have some of the best plain clothes. Plain hoodies, plain pants, some of the best pants I’ve ever had. Whenever I need a plain piece, I’ll throw on maybe an Acne Studio jean with a louder, more colorful hoodie.
I really love what Heaven by Mark Jacobs is doing. Bringing back the aesthetic of the early 2000s — that’s what’s in right now but they’re at the forefront of it. They’re making it pop. I really liked what Balenciaga was doing with their pieces.
Of course, Rick Owens, he’s doing his thing for sure. I feel like that’s a good brand to get people into fashion. Kids that are first dipping their toes, they’re going to hit Rick Owens because that’s what everybody’s wearing nowadays. But then it just spirals and then they’ll learn about, let’s say, Margiela. They might learn about McQueen, and they’ll just go deeper into the hole.
Do you think that the younger generation is more into style than music these days? If so, why? And what does it say about music right now?
I feel like it goes hand in hand, definitely. I feel like people really fall into some artists musically because of their style, because of their aesthetic. A lot of times, from what I’ve seen, even behind the scenes and personally, I know that the style has more to do with an artist blowing up than the music itself. If you’re able to market yourself and people are able to stick with you, and they love your outfits, they love your Instagram feed, they love your music videos, they love your visuals, they want to go see you on tour because of this and that, then that holds more weight than the music itself.
Anyone can be musically talented if you put the time in. It’s just about the marketing really. I feel like that’s what people are sticking to more nowadays than ever before. At the end of the day, the music still matters, but I think definitely style does have more to do with it. Unfortunately, that’s just how it is these days.
I think people don’t want to admit it, but I think it’s always been like this. If you think about The Beatles, that early look was a choice.
Yeah, for sure. And then that’s another reason how they were able to touch so many people. Because people were like, “Yo, why do they look like that? Who are these guys?”
In your opinion, based on your travels across the country, what city do you think has the best street style?
I want to say New York and even San Francisco. I was just there, and they have crazy street style. But I do feel like a lot of that is due to the weather… It’s so different because in LA when I try to dress up, I do my best every day. I love layering up. I love wearing jeans, I love all of it. But outside it’s 95 degrees, so that [outfit] can only last so long. I might wear it to an event and then that’s it.
But when you’re out in, say New York, or the Bay, you can be layered up from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM and nothing will change. The sun’s not going to get high. You might need to even buy some gloves while you’re out. But in LA, if the weather was better, I know we would be killing it for sure. But every city has their thing. LA has nice beaches. We have hot weather. New York may be colder, but you can dress up. So for fashion, definitely New York.
How do you buy designer clothes when you’re broke?
I feel like you just really have to want it. Me, I would always really, really want a pair of Jeremy Scott shoes, so I would find a way to do it. I’d be in school, I would sell candies. I would sell chips, make my $100, use that $100 to go thrifting for a bunch of Polo Ralph Lauren pieces.
I would get three hoodies for $100 bucks at a thrift store and then I would sell those hoodies for $80 bucks each on Depop or Grailed. Boom, I made a profit. I would use that to go on StockX, go on Grailed, and just lowball everybody until somebody finally accepted my offer.
I would just keep doing that. I was the kid in school that I would make sure I would make my own merch before I even was popping. I would sell Jared Muros shirts, I would sell candies. That would literally just be the way that I would feed my fashion addiction.
I think that’s that East LA mentality too.
Yeah, little hustler! A hundred percent. Yeah and in LA, I feel like you see it everywhere. People sell flowers, people selling elotes, ice cream. They’re just around the hustle.
Just in your opinion, what artists right now have the best style?
An artist’s aesthetic that I really like is Jean Dawson. He has a really dark, but still colorful and bright aesthetic that I’ve really been into. I’ve really been into the old-school stuff like No Doubt. Gwen Stefani is someone that I’ve really been looking towards for a lot of my outfits recently. Just watching old interviews, old music videos. I’m like, “Wow!” I love the way that the colors pop. I love how they didn’t give a fuck. Eyebrows would be pink.
Artists nowadays… Uzi, always. I feel like he’s someone who’s been at the forefront when it came to fashion in the early SoundCloud rapper era.
I’ve really been looking more towards the rock scene — Haley Williams, Avril Lavigne — looking at what they would wear to the VMAs were some of my favorite outfits. It was just such a different time and just so different than what people do nowadays. I feel like nowadays a lot of it is boring, or a lot of celebrities who are males, just go shirt, tie, suit. It’s like. “Nah, come on, give me more!”
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What’s next? What do you have planned? I know you’re hitting up some Fashion Week stuff.
Yeah, so headed to Fashion Week. Definitely excited for that. I love doing events. I’m going to have a little event and get a bunch of local New York brands in together. Just give away clothes to the kids in the city for some back-to-school stuff.
Then excited to head to Paris and just dip my toes into overseas and see what the fashion is like over there because I’ve heard that it’s way crazier.
I just like to go with the flow every single day. I don’t like to stress myself out too much because then I end up overextending myself when I’m like, “Okay, I got to have this many videos done today, and then I got to drop clothes here, and then I’m going to drop a song here.” It gets to be too much.
I always have a list of big things to do. Hit New York. Hit Paris. 200,000 followers. And then just slowly but surely reach the goals and then make some new ones.
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