Everyone Tried to Out-Model Each Other at the Paper Towns LA Premiere

Paper Towns is a new magical-teen-love movie based on the book by Fault in Our Stars author John Green, likely to be a summer hit. It also stars supermodel Cara Delevingne—it’s expected to launch her film career, actually—so the LA premiere over the weekend featured several models, modeling.

Who will prevail in this incredibly serious model standoff? Cara is going for ferocity in an Alexandre Vauthier ensemble—those Gucci-esque pom poms on her stilettos convey a sense of seriousness about this model game that lets us know she’s playing to win. But Kendall Jenner’s Zimmerman ensemble evokes a very classic Love Story appeal that’s perfect for this particular red carpet (nothing’s shadier than dressing like Ali Macgraw at the opening of your friend’s breakout young-romance film!). Plus: side-slit is classic model, stunting behavior.

Still, Kylie Jenner is a dark horse here. While I have grown immensely weary with the concept that allover sheer is a good idea, particularly the way it has unfortunately trickled down to street style and is almost universally unflattering, Kylie’s color palette is IMPECCABLE. A monochrome hue is always chic, and the way the taupe tulle sets against that buttery suede moto jacket and compliments her pastel aqua hair is stunning. Do we have a winner?!

In contrast, some of the dudes on this carpet were these ladies’ antithesis. The premiere was at the London Hotel in WeHo (you Los Angelenos say “WeHo,” right?), and while it’s a very lovely hotel (best known as the location of Lupita Nyong’o’s pearl dress heist), it’s still a hotel.

Jaden Smith, caught here midblink, is perhaps the only trustworthy purveyor of athleisure in existence, mainly because he is a 17-year-old and what the hell else would he wear. Bonus points for the electrical tape presumably keeping his right shoe together; that’s real. Sam Trammell, who transitioned nicely from being Sookie Stackhouse’s bar werewolf to the dad in Fault in Our Stars, is doing that thing dudes do when they want you to think they give a fuck but really don’t: blazer over t-shirt. No sweat. George Lewis, Jr. aka Twin Shadow aka guy I used to stalk around Bushwick aka Mr. Zoe Kravitz (apparently!), is really doing too, too much here, but I respect the desire to wear pajama pants (commando?) and slippers, though this is the kind of thing that happens when you spend too much time in LA. Here’s his song for the soundtrack; it sounds like a parody of a cinematic song in a teen movie soundtrack, but if that’s his game, good troll, dude. I dub thee Karate Kid. (Nothing will get more truly cinematic than this.)

People give Taylor Swift a lot of credit for her friendship hustle, but it’s pretty clear that Jaden Smith is better at it, and is slept on:

Also, he won this model-off. Look at that bored face. Hopefully he’s cast in Zoolander 2.