On Instagram, streetwear and future: an interview with Lil Jupiter

Lil Jupiter became famous through Instagram.
The 20-year-old New Yorker's account (closed and then recently reopened) looks like a stream of images taken from the world of fashion, film and pop culture seemingly unrelated and inconsistent with each other. Thanks to the excellent aesthetic taste and humor of their curator, they have managed to become a real moodboard for contemporary culture. Over time, this semi-anonymous account has been very successful and attracted the attention of distinguished followers such as Virgil Abloh, Jerry Lorenzo and Sean Wotherspoon. Even the New Yorker, one of the most important cultural magazine in the world, dedicated an article to him in which it attributed to him a "post-normcore streetwear sensitivity" and called him "inscrutable".

In 2019, the anti-influencer designed his first sneaker in collaboration with K-Swiss, the K-Swiss Jupiter Space White CR329, released in only 100 pairs. In the following months the success of the collaboration led to the creation of another collaboration, the K-Swiss x Lil Jupiter CR-Terrati, which raised the number of pairs available to 300. The partnership between K-Swiss and Lil Jupiter is enriched now a new chapter, an Ltd Edition realized also in collabo with LuisaViaRoma, that will be presented on Wednesday 8th at Pitti in Florence, during an event at K-Swiss store (with Lil Jupiter himself). Black and navy dominate the color palette of the sneaker, with "space" details that recall the very first release.

Lil Jupiter developed his own "style" to get visibility for his brand, posting hundreds of photos a day in which he hid the products created by him. The lack of caption and context is due to his desire for neutrality, his willingness not to influence anyone. However, an element of subtle humor and awareness remains in his posts in which many, the New Yorker in the first place and then his followers and commentators, read hidden comments and messages.

Lil Jupiter was at the 2019 edition of ComplexCon, in Long Beach, and nss magazine had the chance to talk to him about his vision of the world, Instagram and, above all, to have a look at his new shoes with LuisaViaRoma and K-Swiss.

Can you tell us about your collaboration with K-Swiss?

Lil Jupiter: My collaboration with K-Swiss began about two years ago. I went to meet the president, Barney [Waters, editor's note], and the team at K-Swiss and I think from that they realized it would have been a good partnership and that’s how we started with the first shoe, which was only a hundred [pairs, editor's note]. It was more of a simple shoe just to get things started. We saw that it was a success and we decided to do a second shoe. And with the second shoe we were able to do more – put more details, put more elements on the shoe, than the first one. The first one was more simple, the second was more complex, more materials.

How do you feel about designing? Do you want to keep on?

Lil Jupiter: I wanna keep designing, that’s what I want to do for a living. I’ve so many ideas in my head,  so many designs that I just wanna express. By putting them on hoodies, on t-shirts. I haven’t got started yet because I’m just doing t-shirts. I haven’t really started cutting suits and doing more complex things. So, I think I’m just getting started with design. I just hope I learn more and just be able to expand my designing abilities.

Your Instagram profile is a different one. Because you don’t post about you, mainly. Is it more like a moodboard for you?

Lil Jupiter: For me, uh... Instagram is like a moodboard for me. I don’t look at numbers, I don’t look at opinions that much. I think for me Instagram is where I put things I like, you get feedback but you don’t get too caught up with what people are saying, the negative. You just stay with the positivity. You post whatever you like. You curate a page where you just post anything you like. And you don’t have to worry about putting things that everybody likes. You put what you like and how you want it to look.

Who are your favorite rappers?

Lil Jupiter: At the moment it’s Travis Scott, Trippie Redd, Lil Yachty… That’s probably my top three, at the moment.

On what ideas or projects are you currently working on?

Lil Jupiter: I did a collab with Advisory Board Crystals. I have my own brand, Designer Humans, which I’m gonna be launching soon. I’m getting that prepared in the meantime. I’m gonna keep working with K-Swiss and hopefully keep doing more shoes. I’m gonna possibly work  with their shoe in case it’s coming up soon. And there may be more projects on the way. Like I said, I’m just getting started. This is just the beginning for me.