Following the death of creative director and genius Virgil Abloh, the public’s eyes were fixed on Louis Vuitton, which carefully and patiently selected his successor. Finally, in February of this year, the news arrived that none other than Pharrell Williams would take the position of creative director for the men’s collection, known to part of the audience as a designer, but to most as a musician and producer. Four months later, Williams, who bore the weight of high expectations (after all, he was the successor to the dearly departed Abloh), launched his first collection at Paris Fashion Week. Faux fur jackets, brand logo clothing in vibrant colors, and a reinterpretation of the famous Damier pattern quite satisfied the audience, as evidenced by the fact that the show was the most viewed in LV’s digital media history.
As reported by the BBC, although this was not the first time Williams collaborated with fashion brands – he had previously worked with Louis Vuitton twice, as well as Chanel, Moncler, and Adidas – this new role is the most significant in his (fashion) career. The creative has thus joined an interesting team of well-known Black musicians who have immersed themselves in the world of fashion – from Rihanna with her luxury beauty-brand Fenty and lingerie brand Savage X Fenty, Kanye West and his Yeezy, Beyoncé and Ivy Park, to Tyler, the Creator and Golf le Fleur. In fact, Williams continues a fifty-year tradition of intertwining hip-hop and the fashion industry. Recently, the BBC wrote about the influence of this initially American music genre and subculture, concluding that hip-hop is one of the driving forces of the fashion industry.
Early Days
It is believed that the genre, as well as the entire accompanying subculture, was ‘born’ at a house party of two teenagers in the Bronx in August 1973. From that moment on, writes the BBC, fashion has been an integral part of that scene. Representatives of the genre demonstrated their personal tastes and preferences through a unique fashion style, wearing oversized clothing in bold colors, and even pieces from luxury brands, but they gave them a different function than originally intended. As Cassandra Hatton, global head of the Popular Culture Department at Sotheby’s auction house, stated, hip-hop culture attracts a global audience because its guiding thread, its defiance, need for self-expression, and uplifting others are appealing to everyone, and the importance of fashion in the genre is also spoken about by the musicians themselves in their songs. For example, Mary J. Blige released the track ‘What’s the 411?’ in 1992, invoking American designer Tommy Hilfiger. On ‘Saturday Night Live’, Snoop Dogg introduced this brand to the world in March 1994 during a performance, wearing a rugby shirt in red, white, and blue stripes with ‘Tommy’ written across the chest.
Although the world today is well acquainted with Snoop Dogg and that clothing does not seem unusual, for many viewers of that era, the matter was quite unexpected, and Hilfiger seemed incompatible with hip-hop performers. Nevertheless, this brand is strongly associated with the genre, and as Tommy Hilfiger himself told the BBC, his design was bold, the colors vibrant, the silhouettes oversized, and the ‘vibe’ playful.
– We captured the relaxed energy of hip-hop. And it was so much fun that we wanted to continue working with these exciting artists and began dressing stars like Puff Daddy, TLC, Destiny’s Child, and Wu-Tang – Hilfiger recalled.
Heroes with Logos
Initially, female hip-hop artists wore oversized men’s clothing, but in 1997, musician Aaliyah transformed the previously popular women’s style with a campaign for Tommy Hilfiger. In the campaign, she wore low-rise jeans from which boxer shorts peeked out, and a men’s shirt was tailored into a crop top. They claim she made women’s hip-hop fashion sexier, but not vulgar, rather more tomboyish. Hip-hop fans embraced more luxurious American brands like Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph Lauren not only because they liked their aesthetic at the time but also due to their status.
As exhibition curator from the Fashion Institute of Technology – ‘Fresh, Fly and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop’ Elena Romero told the BBC, hip-hop’s love for luxury brands dates back to the early days of this music genre when such fashion was unattainable for many fans. Music and culture were first embraced by working-class individuals, who viewed fashion brands as status symbols and dreamed of a lifestyle that was in complete contrast to their own. She herself listened to hip-hop in her formative years and viewed musicians as superheroes. When they began wearing branded clothing, it somehow boosted the confidence of the entire community, because if their heroes, representatives of their subculture, could wear the brand, surely they would one day be able to as well.
In other words, the fashion choices of hip-hop artists seemed to have expanded their previously closed ‘working-class’ worlds, making a luxurious lifestyle more accessible. That is why their luxury was nothing like what is today called ‘quiet’, as it was clear from the first glance at a clothing piece which brand it was.
Turning Point
Williams paid homage to the logomania of the early days of hip-hop in his debut for LV, and among other things, this is credited to the father of hip-hop style and the pioneer of logomania, fashion designer Daniel R Day, known as Dapper Dan. He opened his first store in Harlem in 1982 and adorned his designer pieces with logos from Gucci, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton. Dapper Dan reinterpreted luxury fashion like no one before or after. In the early nineties, his designs were challenged by the brand Fendi, which decided to sue him for using its logo, forcing the designer to retreat into ‘underground’. Nevertheless, throughout his entire career in the shadows, he managed to maintain his cult status and immense influence on the entire subculture.
Fashion brands finally saw potential in this and began negotiating legal collaborations with him. This was a turning point for the entire industry, and with the rise of the collaboration trend, more and more brands began creating collections in partnership with well-known names from the music world. In recent years, thanks to this collaboration with the fashion world, hip-hop has confirmed that it is much more than a music genre. Hip-hop is a cultural movement, a lifestyle, a symbol of energy, vibrancy, an abundance of possibilities, but also, as it turned out, a source of profit for luxury fashion houses.
