Grab your vintage track suits, and dust off your favourite pair of Nike Air Max’s, because street-wear is making a name for itself all over again.
A new evolution of streetwear is hitting the block, showing people how to dress like their favourite hip-hop stars from the noughties. No more will you get the look of shame for wearing a pair of black Adidas track bottoms, accompanied by the offensive but edgy socks and sliders combo. This niche area of fashion was always peaking its way through, past the Dad jeans and fitness watch trackers, desperate to break through and revolutionise the fashion industry.
Now, I’m not saying that streetwear is this brand new sub-culture, but it has certainly had a well needed upgrade from the likes of: Off-White, Louis Vuitton, Supreme and so on. The designer for Off White, which in my opinion is in the top tier of high fashion streetwear brands, Virgil Abloh spoke to The Guardian about, “how real people wear clothes, sneakers with dresses, a hoody, it’s mixing the genres.” These people are considered the ‘conquerors of streetwear’ to Abloh, so everyone and their dog are copping whatever they can, spending thousands to attain this title. It is important to mention that Abloh was recently named creative director of Louis Vuitton, a streetwear designer in a high-fashion luxury fashion house, this was huge news for the industry.
[pullquote]Streetwear has the younger generations to thank for its rebirth, they will do whatever they can to stay relevant and branded on the streets. [/pullquote]When I say ‘anything’ I really do mean it, whether it’s queuing up for days on end for a pair of sneakers, or blowing all their money on ‘hyped’ garments. Popular streetwear brand Palace recently collaborated with the classic and timeless brand Ralph Lauren, on a 16-piece collection which released on 9th November 2018. The collaboration blind-sided everyone, a London born skating brand working closely with Lauren was definitely something no one saw coming. But we’re living in a society now where skating brands are being recognised for their uniqueness and ability to control the consumption of youths. The collection sold out in less than a minute, reselling for double, even triple the retail prices – now that in itself is a sure sign that streetwear is changing up the fashion game.So, I would be lying to you if I said I’m not one of these people who buys the product for the brand rather than the way it looks, but for most of these streetwear brands once a collection has been released it is never re-released. The only way to obtain any of these pieces post-release is through online marketplaces such as; Bump and Depop, but unless you have £200 to spare on a t-shirt that retailed at £40, then I’d stick to the classic ASOS rip-offs.
This wouldn’t be a streetwear article if I didn’t mention one of the most popular brands in streetwear, Supreme. Don’t act like you’ve never heard of the brand, Supreme is the epitome of streetwear hype. People go crazy for the famous box logo and will pay absurd amounts of money just to own something from the brand. This ‘hype’ makes streetwear threatening to other classic designers, so they’re all jumping on the band-wagon…or I guess hype-wagon. Sorry I apologise for that tragic attempt at being funny, but seriously classic designers are clinging to their annually reused and recycled designs panicking that they might actually have to start being creative!
A lot of you may be thinking it’s just a phase, it’ll be irrelevant again in 2019, but if you take anything away from reading this today - it’s that streetwear is here to stay.
The streetwear uprising is real, so get ready for it!