Hip Hop!

HIP HOP

is

A Culture

Fashion

Hip hop fashion is also known as urban fashion. This distinctive style originated from African American youth on the scene of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the San Francisco, Detroit, Memphis, Atlanta, and St. Louis.

It complements the expressions and attitudes of hip hop culture in general. Today hip-hop fashion it is a prominent part of popular fashion as a whole across the world and for all ethnicities.

In the late 1970s, established sportswear and fashion brands. During the 1980s , hip-hop icons wore clothing items such as brightly colored name-brand tracksuits, sheepskin and leather bomber jackets, Clarks shoes. Popular haircuts ranged from the early-1980s was the Jheri curl, a fade popularized by Will Smith. Another trend was the adaptation and brandishing of high net-worth fashion house brands such as Louis Vuitton, Fendi, and Gucci and logos in custom-designed tracksuits, jackets, mink coats. Popular accessories included large eyeglasses bucket hats, nameplates, name belts, and multiple rings. Heavy gold jewelry was also popular in the 1980s; heavy jewelry in general would become an enduring element of hip hop fashion.

Black nationalism was increasingly influential in rap during the late 1980s, and fashions and hairstyles reflected traditional African influences. Blousy pants, Africa chains, dreadlocks, and Black Nationalist colors of red, black, and green became popular as well. The Nike capture of soon-to-be superstar basketball protege Michael Jordan from rivals Adidas in 1984 proved to be a huge turning point, as Nike dominated the urban streetwear sneaker market in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Women

Fashion is a unique offshoot of hip hop fashion. While they still invoke the urban streets, women's fashion also emulates the male tough-guy fashion such as baggy pants, sunglasses, heavy workboots, some wore lip gloss and a bit more make-up to make the industrial work pants and work boots feminine.

One cannot speak of fashion trends without mentioning the importance of hair styles, particularly for women. In the past few years there has been a resurgence of the asymmetrical hair cut with a contemporary spin. Stars such as Rihanna, Cassie and Kelis have all dared to be different by setting the new trend of the half-shaven head.

In the early 1990s, baseball caps and bright, often neon-colored, clothing was popular. Women wearing over-sized pants and big flannel shirts, they would couple the over-sized clothing with a tight shirt usually a sports bra underneath their big shirts. This was to show their own version of femininity, everything does not have to be form fitting and tight in order to be sexy. There was also established a fad of wearing clothes backwards. Kwamé sparked the brief trend of polka-dot clothing as well, while others continued wearing their mid-80s attire.

Trends

The reemergence of Adidas track jackets and the use of fashion scarves have been some of the latest trends to hit the hip hop fashion scene. Adidas track suits are certainly not new to hip hop culture as they have been around essentially since commercialized hip hop was created, however they have recently once again become popular.

Fashion scarves have also become popularized in recent years. Kanye West is the most recent artist to launch his own line of products by selling decorative scarves with provocative depictions, named Risque Scarves. Skateboarding fashion has been used in the Hip-Hop scene since the early 2010s including Knit Caps, Bonnets, Fitted Pants or Shorts, Vans, Nike SB (Skateboarding), Shirts with sleeves and Printed Tees (brands like OBEY, Supreme, Stussy, Adidas, Supra, Circa, DC, RDS and Emericas).

Today

As referenced above, the nineties decade centered around women's senses of style revolving around that of men in that they'd adopted the use of oversized t-shirts and baggy pants. Female rap group Salt-N-Pepa are considered amongst the frontrunners in leading the transition of moving away from the male alignment and asserting feminism in creating a new sense of dress. They are said to have "wowed fans while wearing hot pants, cut-off denim shorts and Lycra body suits".

Black women's relationships to their bodies occur within overlapping cultural contexts that offer contradictory messages about their value and function". In a male dominated society, it is no wonder that women used to work hard to align themselves with male images including how they'd dressed. As women generally gained access to and exposure within the offerings of several sectors of society, for example music, movies and television, we saw more images of what constituted attractiveness emerge.

Other Trends

Sports jerseys have always been popular in hip-hop fashion. Hip-hop artists donning the pricey jerseys in music videos led to increased demand, and led to the rise of counterfeiters flooding the market with fake jerseys to capitalize on the craze. Tommy Hilfiger was one of the most prominent brand in 1990s sportswear, though Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Nautica, and DKNY were also popular. Hilfiger's popularity was due to its perceived wispiness, which made it seem exclusive and aspirational. Moreover, Hilfiger courted the new hip hop market: black models and rappers featured prominently in the company's advertising campaigns. Karl Kani was the first to set the trend of merging hip-hop with fashion. By combining his two passions Karl started a whole new fashion movement and many designers followed in his footsteps Other sports brands, such as Nike, Jordan, FUBU, Reebok Pro-Keds, Adidas, Ecko Unlimited, Mecca USA, Lugz, Rocawear, Boss Jeansby IG Design, and Enyce , arose to capitalize on the market for urban street wear.