So Sean John is a really important brand because I think that this brand did more than any other to kind of marry this idea of hip-hop and mainstream fashion. SEAN COMBS: (Rapping) Say my name, come on. It's from the musician-turned-mogul Diddy, also known as Sean Combs. An all-black outfit catches my eye with slim cut pants, shiny black shoes and a furry bolero-style cropped jacket over a crisp button down. And the growth of hip-hop also gave opportunities for Black-owned companies and designers, some of whom came from the music themselves. SUMMERS: By the '90s, hip-hop was showing up everywhere. KELLY PRICE: (Singing) I don't know what they want from me. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MO MONEY MO PROBLEMS") SUMMERS: If at first hip-hop artists were dressing themselves aspirationally, the fashion brands they were representing, or in some cases bootlegging, were forced to pay attention. UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #1: (Rapping) How to catch a groove. So we went from seeing it on TV, thinking it was far reaching to now our celebrities, these hip-hop personas, were doing exactly the things that we thought we could never do. SUMMERS: It's that aspirational nature you're talking about. ROMERO: Growing up as a kid, we watched Robin Leach, "Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous." And that gave us an inside look as to what wealth would attain. Oh, my hair, neck and fingers is crazy-glow. SALT-N-PEPA: (Rapping) The shirt I wear may be low cut. Early entertainers that would be wearing them would include LL Cool J, Salt-N-Pepa. It gave them a sense of luxury and wealth and status. In other words, he was borrowing the luxury brands' logos and incorporating them into his original designs. But the catch was these were not styles that we would have seen on the runway or in your local department stores. The logos that he used at the time were the brands of luxury, of high fashion - Gucci, Louis Vuitton, MCM. ROMERO: Well, anybody who was anybody, if they were going to get a custom outfit, they would head to Harlem to this 24-hour, seven-day-a-week shop, where you can get your one of a kind outfit made by Dapper Dan. (SOUNDBITE OF SALT-N-PEPA SONG, "SHAKE YOUR THANG") But between limited edition sneakers and Cardi B's bedazzled nails, Way and Romero point out that early hip-hop pioneers found crafty and relatively affordable ways to stand out, like custom belt buckles or fat shoelaces, which brings us to Dapper Dan. Inside the exhibit, mannequins sport dozens of outfits stacked on scaffolding two tiers high. SUMMERS: That's fashion historian and FIT co-curator Elizabeth Way. He also includes leather gloves that he danced in. We have this beautiful, fine knit sweater and capped off with this white cap. SUMMERS: And one of the first things you see in this exhibit is an outfit worn by an early breakdancing legend, the b-boy popmaster Fabel.ĮLIZABETH WAY: So we're talking about Lee Jeans with permanent creases down the front, PRO-Ked sneakers, a belt buckle with Fabel on the buckle. THE SUGARHILL GANG: (Rapping) I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie, to the hip hip hop-a you don't stop. It's called "Fresh, Fly And Fabulous: 50 Years Of Hip-Hop Style." She's one of the curators of a new exhibit at the FIT Museum. SUMMERS: Elena Romero is a longtime fashion journalist and now a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. SUMMERS: In hip-hop's early days in the 1970s, the looks might have aspired to such cachet but were understandably less glamorous.ĮLENA ROMERO: A lot of it had to do with socioeconomic status, and being able to wear clothes of different brands really was dependent on how much money you had. (SOUNDBITE OF THE SUGARHILL GANG SONG, "RAPPER'S DELIGHT") SUMMERS: Today, the biggest fashion houses in the world want to put their outfits on the biggest superstars in the world - rap artists. MIGOS: (Rapping) Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace, Versace.ĬARDI B: (Rapping) These is red bottoms, these is bloody shoes. JAY-Z: (Rapping) Now just change clothes and go. RUN-D.M.C.: (Rapping) My Adidas walk through concert doors. From the birth of hip-hop 50 years ago, the Black and brown kids who created and reinvented the culture have always made it a point to dress well.
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