What is Streetwear

Streetwear has many origins according to multiple sources like I said, but I think the overall consensus is that it was inspired and started during the late 70’s, around the time we ventured in to early hip-hop and punk rock, as the first streetwear innovators like Shawn Stussy took from this do-it-yourself kind of attitude and applied it to his early surf inspired wear (RebelsMarket, 2021). This was something that many genres of music and fashion inspired, such as like I said, but another culture that took this approach was skate culture…

In the early 80’s, we saw brands like DC, Vans and in the introduction of Thrasher magazine inspire a lot of looks and trends within the streetwear scene along with Stussy, mixing practical and trendy clothing that all the coolest skaters were wearing. Hence we have a uniform for people to follow and adapt, which is wear that traditional cool skater look comes from, we all know it, the baggy jeans, DC low tops and a graphic tee with a cap to cover up the long hair you’d be rocking. But the beauty of before technology was the finding and discovering of new trends and styles through different people and experiences, so you couldn’t just go on socials and see what everyone was wearing 5000 miles away in Japan, the US or Europe, and buy it online and get it delivered, you had to be in the know, or know a guy who’s know a guy who can hook you up with those brand new Air Force 1’s. This caused a more natural and organic growth that saw different countries and regions curate their own styles and trends within their own culture, for example, Bape, which started in the 90’s was a global brand and had a massive raise in popularity in Japan originally, because it was based off American hip-hop culture in the 90’s and this was something new and different to what other Japanese brands were doing at the time. This was called ‘Ura-Harajuku’ or ‘underground Harajuku’ which is, according to Highsnobiety “the underground scene going during the early ‘90s which was heavily informed by a mixture of various American clothing’s and styles.” (Foley, 2018).

The American roots of streetwear were mainly through hip-hip culture and skate styles like we said, but workwear which is currently a big trend at the moment, was a massive part of the shaping of streetwear in the 80’s. According to sources of why this was “The rise of certain subcultures aided and helped this change. Suddenly, donkey jackets and overalls were worn by people who had nothing to do with manual labour but simply wanted to defy trends and refused to conform to them.” (ADC, n.d.). Trends like this, are why we see brands like Carhartt around today, which was a workwear brand designed to a streetwear enthusiast, creating a niche for their signature work jackets, knit hats and caps, which are still staples in a streetwear wardrobe in 2022 (Skid, 2020).

An image taken from the Streetwear Impact Report (Menendez, 2019)

Hypebeast conducted an interview with streetwear godfather I think is fair to say, Hiroshi Fujiwara, the creator of Fragment design. I’ve highlighted this interview as I believe he has a unique perspective on history and origins of streetwear as he as part of this Ura-Harajuku movement in the 80’s/ 90’s and how he saw the space change and evolve over the coming decades. When asked about defining streetwear, he spoke about skate culture and how this is why we use the word ‘street’ as that’s where people skated and so, it was named streetwear. The overall vision of skate-wear was what caught Fujiwara’s eye as he understood the importance of this uniform as the movement started. But he states that this has shifted dramatically from skate and said:

“The current reality is different. It feels like a sneaker culture now; sneakers and hip-hop culture have become the street culture.”

(Menendez, 2019)

This evolution has happened through multiple reasons and trends, such as a certain basketball player called Michael Jordan, you might’ve heard of him before, as well as luxury brands investing in streetwear through designer sneakers and t-shirts like Balenciaga and their Triple S’s. We’ve gone pretty far in to this without touching on Supreme but their impact has been monumental in terms of creating a streetwear lifestyle brand and how to complete the collaboration game and their narrative over the years is a good way to judge how the streetwear game has changed. For example, in the early 200’s we saw them collaborate with The North Face for the first time, whilst also working with luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci, creating renditions of the ever iconic Supreme box logo. At the same time also keeping to it’s hip-hop roots and working with Public Enemy in 2006 creating staple beanies and tee’s that both represented an anti-establishment approach and a political agenda which matched both parties at the time. Going back briefly to Fujiwara’s statement about how we view streetwear now, in terms of an overriding sneaker culture, Nike have now entered the conversation and during the 80’s we start to see Air Force 1’s and Air Jordan start to take off, pardon the pun. We haven’t seen a sports icon have an influence quite like MJ, we’ve had Stan Smith, famed for the well, Stan Smiths and we’ve seen stars since like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant have sneaker lines. None of these names have equated to the influence that a Jordan sneaker has had, I think sneakers have become a focal point in everyone’s outfit, personal, I decide what shoes are going on my feet before anything else.

“It turns out that much like with the renewed hype for Michael Jordan himself, it’s not just about recognizing greatness; it’s about finding new ways to tell the stories that build the myth.”

(Sayles, 2020)

Image of the Air Jordan 1 ‘Banned’ Ad campaign (Complex, 2020)

The Jordan 1 for example, was first released in 1985 and one of the original colourways was a mixture of black and red, with a white midsole called the ‘bred’ colourway, creative right! But the origin story of this sneaker is what makes it special, so this sneaker colourway was made as a homage to the fact that due to basketball rules, your footwear had to be 51% white and due to this, this colourway was banned by the NBA in professional matches and thus becoming the Jordan 1 ‘banned’ which was an unreal marketing ploy by Nike, because in them days as we know, everyone wanted to be more like Mike.

Overall, the creation of streetwear was a cumulation of cultures, designers, sports and more to create a unique but uniform world that lets people ‘fit in’ with like minded individuals whilst also wearing what you want. The space is ever-changing and I think will continue to adapt and change more and more with the metaverse especially. But we’ll get on to that in a bit…