A Look At Terrell Jones' Inspiration For New Clothing Line

The stylist behind music industry icons ranging from DJ Khaled to Mary J. Blige checks in and shares the inside scoop on launching his own line.

For Terrell Jones (@terrellish), the future of fashion is always in his mind’s eye. And now after over 16 years of styling DJ Khaled along with some of hip-hop's other greatest acts, Jones is looking to solidify his name in the luxury brand world with his own men’s luxury sportswear collection. Coming off the heels of a collaboration with Dolce & Gabbana, Jones spoke with us at EDITION about how he achieved so much in his career thus far, and how he’s expanding his creative reach.

The road to becoming a stylist was both something natural to Jones and slightly unexpected.

“Style has been a huge part of my personality,” says Jones. “I didn’t know that styling and being a stylist was something that actually existed.”

The now 42-year-old stylist says style and high fashion have always been a part of his life growing up in Harlem.

“Fashion and style were a nature and language that were spoken,” Jones recounts. “We got dressed up to go out, to go to school. Everything and every moment we turned it into a fashion show.”

And as he closely followed the looks and credits from early ’90s hip-hop artists, he discovered that styling was more than just a lifestyle—it’s a career.

“Hip-hop is connected to all types of fashion.”

Styling musicians then became the first start of Jones’ career as he began by training with a close friend styling Mary J. Blige before going to work with his first client of his own, megahit sensation from Jamaica— Sean Paul.

“They wanted him to have a very American brand fashion-forward look,” Jones says.

And Jones delivered, which led him to work with even bigger hip-hop legends like Puff Daddy and Fat Joe. The hip-hop-to-high fashion connection is what propelled his career and craft ever further. Jones still styles for Fat Joe, which is something he takes great pride in along with his work with DJ Khaled. You could say one prepared him for the other.

“At the time Joe was a man of a very certain size,” Jones says. “That’s where I was able to actually birth the designer in myself.”

The challenge of not being able to find luxury brands with sizes that fit the rap icon led to Jones tapping into his own creativity.

“My goal was to create whatever didn’t exist,” Jones says. “My job was to make it exist and make it attainable to my clients.”

Jones synthesized his process of both designing and picking pieces for different celebrity clients into three phases—the statement piece, high quality, and leading with luxury. Even the details of choosing a timepiece Jones says is like finding just the right rare gems to suit the client.

From where Jones is now, to where he was starting out, he deeply credits his mentor Bevy Smith for helping him get to where he is today.

“Miss Bevy Smith taught me about relationships, how important they are, and how to hold on to them,” says Jones. “There’s a lot of power in relationships.”

Now looking into the future, Jones is excited to soon be launching his own men’s luxury sportswear collection inspired by his own personal style. Coming out of spending time at home due to the pandemic, Jones’ collection meets that desire for luxury and leisure.

“If I were going to wear only joggers or sweatsuits, I wasn’t going to sacrifice the luxury,” Jones says. His collection will be something that works with today’s time. No official release date is set but look forward to hearing more about Terrell Jones the brand in fall 2022.

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