![]() His clothes weren’t the copies of runway fashion you find on eBay they were unique, hand-crafted and often more expensive than the originals. The go-to was Dapper Dan, born Daniel Day, a haberdasher who would import bootlegged fabrics or screen-print logos onto luxury leather, then turn them into one-of-a-kind, street-inflected pieces like oversized bomber jackets and fur-trimmed coats. So Harlem’s tailors figured out a workaround. That inaccessibility made luxury even more covetable. They refused to wholesale there and made their Fifth Avenue stores as unwelcoming to young black men as possible. They were even less comfortable about selling to actual drug dealers, the only other people in Harlem in with the cash to afford them. Biggie might big up Louis Vuitton, but its customers were white, old and didn’t want their couturier draped across an ex-drug dealer. Their focus on the grittier sides of street culture made brands wary. ![]() Rap’s first commercial flush put its stars in financial reach of luxury, but they were still locked out by geography and race. The uniform of rock was stuff that would frighten fans’ mothers for rap, it was clothes that backed up your bars. No other sound has focused so much on starting from the bottom, perhaps because no other music has been so dominated by artists who started life at the bottom. Rap is arguably music’s most entrepreneurial genre, obsessed with graft and hustle, status and the path up from the streets. For those pioneering black artists who grew up amid crime and violence, whose music helped them transcend their place of birth and their lack of opportunities, European luxury brands were the original flex a middle finger to a society that had written them off and a diamond-dripping, mink-trimmed embodiment of the American Dream for the people who bought their records. Its look mattered as much as the sound, partly as an expression of self-identity, partly as shorthand for success. They know that they’ve made it.” Ever since DJ Kool Herc’s first block parties, hip-hop has been a voice for the marginalised. They’re not just using it to promote these symbols that they’ve made it. “They understand that they are now brands and they understand the power that their brands have. ![]() ![]() Luxury logos have always been signals of success hip-hop, but rap’s explosion has shifted expectations. “With hip-hop being the de facto sound of youth and rebellion, a lot of the prominent artists – be it Beyoncé or Kanye West or ASAP Rocky – are now like, ‘Why am I giving people free press?'” says Jian DeLeon, editorial director at Highsnobiety. Now it’s brands like Burberry that come knocking, and rappers who rebuff them. Like the rest of the fashion industry, Burberry coincidentally overcame its distaste for rap just as rap became the loudest sound on earth in December, Nielsen research found more people listened to rap than rock for the first time. It’s dressed Skepta and Nicki Minaj and recently collaborated with Chinese rapper Kris Wu. A few months later, Burberry sent Ja Rule a letter of thanks.Ī decade and more on, the brand has a different stance on hip-hop style. “People have this stigma with the urban community.” She bought it anyway and after she draped her client in the brand’s house check, his fans did too. “They didn’t want him to wear their stuff,” Johnson later told Newsweek. It was the kind of exposure that brands generally love, but Burberry refused to help. Her client was Ja Rule, then promoting the follow-up to his Grammy-nominated, triple-platinum album Pain is Love. From the pioneers of streetwear to Gianni Versace’s grip on pop culture, these are the best brands of the '90s.In 2002, stylist Rachel Johnson walked into a Burberry store in New York to request some clothes for a photoshoot. Today, creatives and the fashion forward are constantly looking back to the '90s for style references and guidance, and we have a myriad of now household names to also thank for the decade's staying power. When those associations grew into their own subcultures the brands you donned became your personal narrative - evolving a symbol as simple as a ‘ swoosh’ into one of the most profitable global phenomenons of all time. Logomania commenced, and people started buying just to associate themselves with certain brands. The ‘90s were also a time when branding and marketing in fashion found symbiosis. Overalls and onesies made an epic comeback, and denim on denim became a wardrobe essential. Tupac redeemed the bandana, Kurt Cobain reclaimed the cardigan, and Kate and Naomi redefined minimalist chic. ![]() The final wardrobes of the 20th century combined slip dresses with flannels, baggy jeans with barely there crop tops - to name a few. This feature was originally published in 2013.įrom The Fresh Prince to Clueless, ‘90s pop culture inspired a new wave of styles. ![]()
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