Jessica Simpson may be an icon — but that’s not stopping her from taking some advice from her children.
On the red carpet at the 2023 Footwear News Achievement Awards on Nov. 29 in New York, Simpson shared that her eldest daughter Maxwell helped to pick her outfit for the event.
“I said, ‘Which look do you like?’ There was a black dress, there were a couple others. And she said, ‘Definitely the first one you tried on. It’s always the first one, Mom.’ She’s right. It’s always the first one,” said Simpson of her look, a champagne-hued gown covered in crystals, paired with Jessica Simpson Collection gold platforms (“I’m definitely a platform girl — I want the height but also the comfort”) and a white cropped feather jacket.
The music artist, entrepreneur and winner of the FNAA Icon Award revealed more about what her three children Maxwell, 11, Ace, 10 and Birdie, 4, have taught her, on everything from fashion to sports and social media.
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“I’m more interested in what my kids think, because there’s nothing jaded about it. There’s something so wholesome about it. [We are] grasping for that wholesomeness in all of the convoluted social media,” Simpson told FN ahead of winning her award.
![NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 29: Jessica Simpson attends the 2023 Footwear News Achievement Awards at Cipriani South Street on November 29, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Footwear News via Getty Images)](https://footwearnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1821285172.jpg?w=650)
The star describes daughter Maxwell as one of her “favorite human beings on the planet” and “effortlessly cool.” She also revealed that the pre-teen is a TikTok wiz. “She is very much into the glow-up stuff, how to better yourself. I had to have her explain it to me the other day, because I thought it was literally putting highlighter on her cheeks,” Simpson said. “She said, ‘Mom, no, it’s your inner glow and how to glow up everything in your life.’ Wow, that’s a beautiful concept. If that’s what you’re learning on TikTok, keep going — but just know, those are all filters.”
Her eldest is also interested in the family business that is the Jessica Simpson Collection, which the star co-founded in 2005 and still runs with her mother Tina Simpson (the mother and daughter bought back the entire company from their partners in 2021).
“Max could absolutely take over the brand,” Simpson said of a potential next-generation moment.
And while her eldest daughter has outgrown her in height and shoe size, Simpson said she is still hanging on to her footwear collection for her youngest.
“I saved all of my shoes, hopefully for Birdie. She’s very petite,” she said.
![NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 29: (L-R) Tina Simpson and Jessica Simpson attend the 2023 Footwear News Achievement Awards at Cipriani South Street on November 29, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Footwear News via Getty Images)](https://footwearnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1821286204-3.jpg?w=650)
Her son Ace, meanwhile, seems to lives up to his name. “He aces everything. I don’t know if we manifested that somehow,” she said of her 10-year-old, who was named after the star’s grandfather.
The music artist and fashion mogul revealed that while her son has been trying out various sports, he’s also following in the footsteps of his father, Simpson’s husband Eric Johnson, as a young football player, having already played a scrimmage at a Los Angeles Rams halftime show.
“I was the loudest person in the stadium. I asked him, ‘How are you not nervous?’ And he’s like, ‘Mom, if there’s 60,000 people there, at least 30,000 of them are going to go eat a hot dog at halftime.'”
“All my kids are very confident, which I love,” Simpson continued. “Maybe Eric and I are doing something right, by just allowing them to be themselves and not forcing them to do things that we think they’d be good at.”