‘A lot of it is who you know’: Just Jared founder Jared Eng on styling stars in Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen, the ethics of celebrity gossip, and why he loves tennis world No 1 Carlos Alcaraz

Aug 10 , 2023

Jared Eng has styled plenty of celebrities over the years. Photo: Getty Images for Malone Souliers

Eng’s new goal is profiling the tennis world’s wealth of ‘good-looking men and women’ – but he was denied a media pass for Wimbledon this year and says the sport is too elitist

Bullet Train star Joey King called him up to find a dress for her wedding to director/producer Steven Piet – but when it comes to gossip, Eng knows where to draw the line

Jared Eng has never set himself concrete goals or established a career path. Instead, he’s “let people in my life lead me to what I want to do next”. That includes establishing the popular celebrity news site Just Jared – initially simply so he could share pop culture with his friends. Then he segued into styling … because he wanted to help those same friends get dressed for special events.

And his latest passion – tennis – came about because he began to play the sport, and also discovered the powerful yet fluid and graceful movements of Spanish pro player, 20-year old Carlos Alcaraz, the current world No 1 and recent winner of Wimbledon.

Calvin Klein’s Calvins or Nothing campaign, featuring Carlos Alcaraz. Photo: @calvinkleinbrasil/Instagram

“The way he plays is so engaging,” said Eng during lunch at one of his favourite Italian restaurants in Beverly Hills. (Singer-actress Katharine McPhee and her husband, music producer David Foster, were seated close by, and came over to say a warm hello). “Carlos Alcaraz runs so fast the camera can’t capture him. First he’s here, then he’s there. He’s the next generation’s Roger Federer.”

Tennis is a very elitist sport, people think you have to be rich to play. But that’s not true. Tennis rackets can cost as little as US$14

Eng had just returned from the Miami Open tournament, photographing the ATP Tour Masters event for his site. While there, he met with the organisation’s communications team, and broached the idea of helping spread the word about this new generation of tennis players – a group, he says, with “so much talent, and a lot of good-looking men and women players”. His goal in the short term is to create more tennis content – photos, videos, opportunities to style the players. “I could put them in editorials, I could push the players and the sport in general, nationally and internationally,” he adds.

Eng’s objective has met with some resistance; he says he wasn’t able to get permission to cover Wimbledon as a member of the press because he did not represent a traditional publication, never mind that his site gets millions of hits a month.

Jared Eng attends the By Far LA store opening party on June 1, in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Getty Images for By Far

“Tennis won’t grow if [these organisations] just appeal to tennis fans. It hasn’t yet reached a critical mass, and I think I know how to bring these tennis players to the general public,” he argues. “Tennis is a very elitist sport, people think you have to be rich to play. But that’s not true. Tennis rackets can cost as little as US$14, and there are often free lessons at public parks.

“The barrier to entry to play is low, but to watch it is high. People have zero idea how to watch all the tournaments. They don’t know how to follow tennis. I’m a new fan and I can see how easy it is for someone to be thwarted from wanting to follow it.”

Eng was never interested in sports growing up. The son of Chinese immigrants in New York, his father was a college athletic director and his four brothers all played basketball, volleyball or practised karate. It is only recently though that he started taking tennis lessons, and says he good-naturedly chides his father for not getting him started sooner, quipping, “I could have been a really great player if I’d started earlier.”