Relationship Between Hip pop and Fashion.
Fashion and Hip pop have evolved over the years since Hip pop emerged in New York City in the mid 70's.It’s through Hip pop that most of the designer outfits rose to fame due to several celebrities rocking them and singing about them in their lyrics.
Most of the trendy styles included buggy trousers and t shirts ,Vintage basket ball jerseys with printed graphics and labels all over their other outfits.
“Hip-hop culture is not just about music; it’s also about a lifestyle. Hip-hop is about people who are free to explore their creativity and connectivity, through a free format of words, language, music, visual styles and, of course, clothing.” This a quote from the documentary “Fresh dressed” where most members of the secular music scene are people from the black community who are seen dressed in nice attire.The documentary show cases how fashion and pop culture have come a long way.
The relationship between Hip pop and foot wear companies also has come a long way with acts like Run-DMC releasing of the song “My Adidas”.A song that lead to influence of the black community to attribute sneaker game with being a hip pop head.This lead to the group receiving an endorsement deal of $1m because of the witnessing Adidas executive Angelo Anastasio had encountered when he attended one of their shows at Madison square garden and seeing die hard fans waving their Adidas apparel and shoe during the performance.
Through this deal the company earned over $100 million over the next four years and contributing to a half-million pairs of shoes being sold.Make it the world’s most successful rap band single-handedly kept Adidas in the fashion limelight.
From this Adidas deal,many designer companies stepped up to contribute to the Hip pop culture with companies like Nike giving endorsements to LL cool J during his debut years by appearing on the back of a magazine cover seen wearing “Air Jordan Ones”.
Clothes brands like Dapper Dan,Gucci,Polo Ralph Lauren,Tommy Hilfiger then followed suit when the industry kept growing from the 80’s to late 90’s causing most of them to harvest large revenue.
Polo Ralph Lauren was one of the first major designer labels to be worn by rap artists.
In the 80’s it was the most looked after brand until the early 90’s when Tommy Hilfiger came and brought stiff competition forcing both rappers and fans to start rocking the new brand.They approached artists like Aaliyah, Grand Puba, Raekwon, Snoop Dogg, and TLC.
FUBU For us,By us is an american brand set up by the shark tank fame Mr. Daymond John in the early 90’s together with other investors the company fetched a whooping revenue of $350 m annually by the end of the decade. FUBU has won numerous awards and has the distinction of having over 5,000 stores carry their collections and more than $6 billion in merchandise sold in the retail market.
Conclusion
Looking at the evolution of fashion industry in conjunction with hip pop culture we conclude that the music pop scene has contributed largely to the visibility of the brands and also to the success of each and every brand that has associated with the different players in the industry.
During the different stages of growth the brands have had the chance to grace big stages and give huge endorsement deals to the hip pop culture contributors.
