What is Streetwear?
According to Google.com, Streetwear is a distinctive style of street fashion. Rooted in Californian surf and skate culture, it has grown to encompass elements of hip hop fashion, Japanese street fashion, and modern haute couture fashion. As with many grassroots cultural movements, streetwear has been notoriously difficult to define.
Basically, you know it when you see it. It's been around for decades.
The aspect I love most about this style is how I can find inspiration from men or women, past or present, young or old, black, white, Asian or any other race. It is truly a universal style.
Popular Brands
There are hundreds and hundreds of different streetwear brands, so I can't possibly put a spotlight on all of them here. So I'm just going to cover the big three. To learn about more, you're just going to have to keep up with the thread!
Supreme is a skateboarding shop/clothing brand established in New York City in April 1994.
The brand caters to the Skateboarding, Hip hop and Punk rock cultures, and the youth culture at large. Unlike other clothing brands, who release their new collections all at once, Supreme releases a small number of items at a time, typically five to fifteen. This "drop" occurs online and in store once every week on Thursdays at eleven in the morning (eastern US time). This strategy maintains the aura of "hype" that the brand creates. (and also results in their shit being expensive as fuck and hard as shit to get your hands on) Their shoes, clothing, and accessories create a big secondary market for supreme clothing, because items are produced to a very limited quantity and also because there are only ten stores worldwide.
Supreme collabs are some of the most hype events in all of streetwear. They've done collabs with Nike, Air Jordan, Vans, Clarks, The North Face, Hanes, Playboy, Levi's, Timberland, Comme des Garçons, Stone Island, UNDERCOVER, White Castle as well as many more.
I'll try to keep the thread up to date on all of the new drops!
A Bathing Ape (ア・ベイシング・エイプ A Beishingu Eipu) (or BAPE) is a Japanese clothing brand founded by Nigo in Ura-Harajuku in 1993. The brand specializes in men's, women's and children's lifestyle and street wear, running 19 stores in Japan.
Bape frequently collaborates with other brands and features characters from popular media such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Marvel comics characters, Nintendo, DC Comics, and Hello Kitty and the Sanrio Family. These designs are used throughout the Bathing Ape range, on goodies, accessories, hoodies, jackets, T-shirts and shoes. A Bathing Ape has also collaborated with many other famous brands such as Pepsi, Coca Cola, M*A*C, Comme des Garçons, Undercover, Neighborhood Technical Apparel, Mastermind Japan, Carhartt, Casio and artists such as Biggie Smalls, Beastie Boys, Pharrell, UNKLE, Devisu, Kanye West, A$AP Rocky, A$AP Ferg, Kid Cudi, Juelz Santana, Soulja Boy, Pusha T, KAWS, Kreayshawn, Linkin Park, Gary Panter, Big Sean, Lil' Wayne, Chris Brown, Future, Flatbush Zombies, G-Eazy, Travis Scott, and Domo Genesis.
Founded in 2010 by Lev Tanju, Palace has grown into one of the most sought-after independent skateboard brands of modern skate culture. Known for its VHS-infused skate videos and distinct logo, the company produces an array of boards and hard goods, in addition to a full cut & sew clothing line and graphic tees with the help of designers Fergus Purcell (Fergadellic) of Silas & Tonite and Will Bankhead of Mo’Wax, two of London’s finest skate creatives.
Where do I buy this shit?
For IRL locations, reddit has a nice city guide. I always prefer buying shit in person so I can try it on.
Here's a huge list of online stores. If there's a hype drop coming, lets try to post the link in the thread.
HELPFUL LINKS
Sneaker-GAF - Sneakers are an essential element of streetwear and possibly the most important part of your outfit. There is so much hype, discussion and releases for sneakers that I couldn't possibly go over all of that here. Luckily, we have our very own Sneaker thread on GAF, so definitely check it out.
Men's Fashion GAF - The truth is, there are some occasions in life where you might come off like a goof if you dress in streetwear, unless you can really pull it off. Chillin with the homies? It's all good. Walking to bucks to grab a coffee? Throw on those ripped jeans, fam. Going to an event with an employer or co-workers? Well don't fear, put the Jordans away and check out the Men's Fashion thread to class your ass up for those more formal events.
Denim-GAF - Like sneakers, a sick pair of jeans is fucking key. We have a dedicated Denim community on GAF that can help you make a decision when you're looking to drop some cash on a sick pair.
r/streetwear is Reddit's streetwear community and is fucking LOADED with info, pics, news, guides and inspiration albums for streetwear. I spend days on here just looking through stuff. They have some great beginner's guides too, definitely worth a look!
Various tumblr blogs - If you're interested in streetwear, I highly recommend starting a tumblr account and just following a bunch of streerwear tumblrs. There's some great shots and inspiration on there. Lots are NSFW, but I prefer the term "art". Here's one that I follow. It might just be easier to follow/go through my tumblr and just follow all the cool people you see!
High Snobiety - One of the many fashion blogs I follow, good source to see upcoming releases, fashion news, etc.
GAF INSTAGRAMS
Anth0ny
oyoshimaru
If you want, post your fashion instagram/tumblr/whatever and I'll add it to the list.
shoutouts to google and wikipedia for letting me copy and paste a bunch of info on brands
Now lets discuss our favorite streetwear styles, ask lots and lots of questions, post our favorite inspiration, discuss what Kanye was wearing, hype upcoming releases, and of course, cry about taking that L on the latest Supreme drop.
Commence the hype, fuckboys.
