Mr Wisdom Kaye didn’t think much about fashion when he was growing up. “I just never really had too much exposure to it,” he says on a call from his home in Texas. How things have changed. Today, Kaye is an IMG model and influencer. He’s a bona fide hit on the social media platform TikTok, amassing an audience of six million followers. Last year, he received the blessing of US Vogue, which called him “TikTok’s best-dressed guy”, and luxury brands such as Valentino and Dior are sending him clothes fresh from the runway. In other words, it’s safe to say that the 20-year-old was the breakout style star of the pandemic.

He’s now known to his army of fans as a fashion lodestar, demonstrating everything from how he likes to wear platform heels to how he would style a whole pile of Fendi goodies, sent to him from Rome in a box that stands as tall as he is.

When pressed, he admits that in high school there were hints of this future calling. He would find small ways to finesse his outfits, such as wearing his shirts half tucked in or folding his trousers into his boots – minor tweaks that reflected his developing personal taste. “Looking back, I had an inclination to wear certain things in certain ways,” he says. “It wasn’t revolutionary or anything, but, especially where I was living, it did stand out.”

Kaye has taken that notion, magnified it and turned it into a fully fledged brand. He makes his living showing others just how much he likes to stand out and teaching them how to do it, too.

His fame highlights the disruptive times in which we live, where a stylish teenager with matinée-idol good looks, an affable demeanour and a smartphone can wield as much power as a magazine editor or front-row celebrity. And for the young, digitally native generation who consider the short-form video app TikTok a speeded-up, highly consumable form of television, Kaye wields nearly as much influence. He posts everything from classic content formulas, such as wardrobe tours and unboxing videos, to more expressive vignettes, such as creating outfits inspired by anime characters or ensembles that cost as much as a car. Often these ideas come straight from his followers and demonstrate the porous, interactive and collaborative nature of TikTok (as relevant as magazines are, they don’t hear, let alone respond to, your requests). They, in turn, eat it up. “Fits go hard,” says one in the comments. Another swoons, “Fashion icon.” Scroll through and you’ll see lots of fire emojis.

Kaye started doing this only a short while ago, in January 2020. It was then that he uploaded his first post, a compilation of 10 outfits, at the urging of some school friends. He says he had only heard of TikTok the previous summer, but didn’t see where or how it could fit into his life. “The first things I was exposed to [on TikTok] were cosplay videos, acting, POV videos,” he says. “To be honest, it didn’t seem like a platform that I could get into.”

Then two things happened. He received immediate positive feedback from that first post and noticed his follower count growing. That, in turn, made him want to post more. Second, the Covid-19 shutdowns in March 2020 meant the real world came to a standstill. The rest of his college semester’s in-person classes were cancelled and Kaye found himself with a lot more time on his hands and a drive for self-expression that needed an outlet.

“I’ve always been a creative person who likes to make stuff,” he says. “Getting introduced to TikTok gave me an opportunity to think, ‘OK, now I have a place to broadcast this.’”

Fashion shows were cancelled and we all changed into our sweats, but Kaye was there to provide some stylish relief. His posts are a blend of inspiration, informative how-tos and style challenges. They encapsulate the overlap between fashion and entertainment and the way the fashion media needs to evolve to meet the breakneck pace of content creators. Tonally, this new generation embraces an inclusive, friendly approach, welcoming fans of fashion and creating a space that is supportive and friendly. Kaye doesn’t pronounce fashion diktats like editors of yore. His message is to embrace your individuality and have confidence in your personal style.

He walks the walk with the breadth and versatility of his own posts. He can just as easily conjure up the laissez-faire elegance of SAINT LAURENT as the mix of cerebral bookishness and 1970s swagger commonly found at Gucci. More recently, he’s been pushing himself to play with more avant-garde stylings, such as the otherworldly elegance that would make the ultimate glamour goth, Mr Rick Owens, smile. “I’ve been more experimental lately,” says Kaye. “I’ve been expressing more of my interests, who I am and what I like, in different elements and silhouettes.”

That latest style swerve can be traced back to one of his favourite films, Tron: Legacy. “I remember when I saw that movie I was just obsessed with the whole aesthetic of the film,” he says. “The futuristic aspects, the soundtrack, Daft Punk – it was really cool and it’s had a big influence on me.”

If there’s a sort of breezy freewheeling spirit to Kaye’s dynamic posts on TikTok, it belies the meticulous work he puts into them. His last styling session was an all-nighter that started at 10.30pm and lasted into the small hours of the next morning. “When I get a new garment, I will literally try on every single combination, every single one,” he says. “You never know when you’re going to need something for going out or for a video, so I have every single combination that looks good.” He then catalogues the approved outfits in a photo album on his phone. Current count? Upwards of 2,000.

Remaining versatile, curious and open to trial and error is a key part of Kaye’s appeal. It’s why he can work with brands as different as Dior and American Eagle, or post about building outfits at Target and Walmart while remaining true to his core principle of personal style. “I try to stay rooted to what I love,” he says. “Which is why I still shop vintage and thrift today. I want to put out the message that you don’t have to break the bank to look stellar. I’m trying to inspire people in that way.”

As the pandemic retreats, it sure sounds like Kaye is going to take the world – the offline, flesh-and-blood one – by storm. I ask him about his future plans and he sounds measured and optimistic, even a bit humble, but I sense that masks a ferocious drive. “I’m trying out some things like acting, voice acting,” he says. “Really thinking about ways to grow the brand of Wisdom Kaye. Lately, I’ve been drawing a lot more. With due time things will fall into place, but for now, I’m just branching out and exploring different things.”