Teyana Taylor has spent years making it clear that there is no artist she reveres more than Janet Jackson. Now she has turned that admiration into one of the standout moments in People’s annual “World’s Most Beautiful” issue, stepping into one of Jackson’s most recognizable looks and calling the icon “the blueprint.”
Taylor appears in the issue dressed in a recreation of the cream military-inspired outfit Jackson wore during the Janet World Tour in the mid-1990s while performing “If.”
Rather than revisit one of Jackson’s most copied looks, Taylor chose a deeper cut from that era and styled the entire shoot herself. She worked with designers Baba Jagne and Laurel DeWitt to recreate the look, down to the sculpted abs.
“Everybody who knows me, knows I don’t play about Janet,” Taylor said. “I’m still, like, her number one fan.”
The connection goes back decades. Taylor said she first became obsessed with Jackson as a child after finding the DVD for Jackson’s Velvet Rope Tour.
“When I saw it, oh my God,” she said. “I knew what I wanted to do when I got older. I knew that I wanted to be an artist.”
That fandom eventually turned into a real-life friendship. After Taylor missed one of Jackson’s concerts in 2017 because her flight was canceled, she posted about it online. Jackson ended up FaceTiming her.
“I had my Janet shirt on that I’d slept in and everything,” Taylor recalled. “Of course I cried.”
The two later met in person, and Taylor said Jackson became an important voice in her life after she stepped away from music in 2020.
“She poured into me and gave me some really good advice,” Taylor said. “She played a big part in why I came back.”
The tribute arrives after a whirlwind year that has pushed Taylor into a new lane of stardom. Earlier this year, she won her first Golden Globe for her supporting role in One Battle After Another. During her acceptance speech, Taylor addressed Black and Brown women watching at home, saying, “We belong in every room we walk into.”
Taylor leaned into another pop-culture icon during her hosting stint on Saturday Night Live. In a promo for the episode, released during the height of her awards-season run, Taylor referenced Angela Bassett’s legendary car-burning scene from Waiting to Exhale.
