High Fashion Does Hip Hop
Hip hop quickly spread from the Bronx to Queens and Brooklyn and moved downtown to mingle with the creative music and arts scene in lower Manhattan.
Hip hop quickly spread from the Bronx to Queens and Brooklyn and moved downtown to mingle with the creative music and arts scene in lower Manhattan.
Dance clubs played a combination of disco, rock, punk, and hip hop and the mix inspired Seventh Avenue designers like Willi Smith, who popularized streetwear by applying the energy and graphic aesthetics of hip hop to his designs.
(L) Moschino X H&M sweatshirt dress, polyester, 2018, Italy, gift of Veronica Webb., 2021.77.1 (R) WilliWear printed shirt, sweater, and shorts ensemble, cotton and ramie / cotton knit, spring 1985, USA, gift of WilliWear, Ltd. (2018)The Museum at FIT
Jeremy Scott is a voracious consumer of pop culture
and a member of the “hip hop generation” (Gen X). It is only natural that he would pay tribute to old-school hip hop aesthetics in his work for Moschino.
In this design for an H&M collaboration, he adapts the black hoodie into a dress covered in trompe l'oeil jewelry that combines 1980s high fashion luxe and the ubiquitous thick gold chains of hip hop style.
Chanel dookie chain, metal, fall 1991, France, gift of Depuis 1924The Museum at FIT
This bold necklace was a key accessory
in Karl Lagerfeld’s 1991 “hip hop” collection for Chanel. Lagerfeld was inspired by artists such as Run-DMC and Salt-N-Pepa. These artists wore the gold “dookie” chain as a symbol of power – ostentatious luxury and success in the face of Reagan-era racial conservatism.
However, here it has become a branding device for high fashion. Since its debut, the Chanel hip hop collection has become controversial for its appropriation of Black culture.
Installation image of case of accessoriesThe Museum at FIT
The established fashion industries
in New York and Europe had begun to take notice of hip hop styling by the early 1990s. In 1991, for example, Karl Lagerfeld appropriated a dookie chain nameplate for the French luxury house, Chanel. It was featured in Vogue as “Rap-inspired riches.”
Later, designers such as Manolo Blahnik and Jeremy Scott for Moschino found ways to mix hip hop with their brands.
Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style was on view at The Museum at FIT February - April 2023. It was curated by Elena Romero, assistant professor, Advertising and Marketing Communications, FIT, and Elizabeth Way, associate curator of costume, MFIT.
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