What is Streetwear?

Do you hate yourself? Maybe cool clothes can help!

This is streetwear. Can you feel it Mr. Krabs?

If you loathe your personality, if you can’t stand to look in the mirror, then maybe cool trendy clothing can boost your confidence! Or at the very least, distract you long enough so you can actually live your life.

Streetwear is a movement started out of the literal streets, and now paraded around like a Halloween costume by upper middle-class kids. Who spend thousands a year for clothes they’ll get tired of in a month.

Streetwear is the latest outlet for self-conscious tweens to “be themselves,” but then bully each other for their wack outfits. To cry “that isn’t streetwear!” (as if they hold any legitimacy to make that kind of claim) while preaching streetwear is all about self-expression - wearing whatever you want is key.

But… Streetwear isn’t dead. It’s far from it. If anything, it’s on the verge of finally becoming what it should have been in the first place.

The Evolution of Streetwear

Streetwear’s roots trace back to late 80’s New York — heavily intertwined with b-boying and hip-hop culture. Bright colors, bold branding, and statement pieces dominated the landscape. Image was everything. If you wanted respect, you had to look the part first.

Now, this was especially relevant for kids in the ghetto. Imagine you’re living in a run-down apartment living off grits and instant macaroni — you don’t want to be judged off that. You don’t want to be that kid.

Your clothing provided an escape: no matter what your situation was like, if your fit was on point, you earned a level of respect through that alone.

My life got no better, same damn ‘Lo sweater

This led to an unhealthy obsession with luxury brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent. These epitomized the upper class lifestyle (aka would earn you the most clout), but were practically impossible to get. You can bet, if a rapper made it big, you’d find them drenched in Polo.

So now you’ve got a suburban culture with a huge interest in luxury brands, full of kids looking up to the stars who broke out of the ghetto, but left unable to afford the pieces that their idols were rocking.

Enter: 90’s Streetwear Brands

Brands like Stussy, Freshjive, FUBU, and Staple sought to fill this void — creating their own underground brands that emulated this feel of effortless luxury cool, while giving a personal, home-grown vibe to it. For Us, By Us.