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Dialogues@RU is published
annually by the
Writing Program at
Rutgers, The State
University of New Jersey

Volume Two
Spring 2003

However, why wouldn't hip-hop be able to persevere? Its influence is enormous, so large, in fact, that according to McKinney, "the urban apparel segment alone grosses a whopping $58 billion in annual sales . . . capturing market share from iconic labels as Ralph Lauren Polo and Donna Karan" (98). In fact, the barriers between urban and Neiman Marcus are gradually fading before our eyes, a truth solidified by the place of P. Diddy, one of rap's most identifiable icons and esteemed designers, on Louis Vuitton's 200-member VIP list. These types of gestures infer that the merger between luxury brands and hip-hop, especially in the form of customized footwear, should not be considered a surprise, but a prelude of what is to come if the barriers between the two markets continue to intertwine.

In hip-hop's enclaves, youth culture has used luxuriously laced foot apparel to renegotiate what an elite or bourgeois consumer really is. The identity or the visual image of a high fashion buyer becomes supplanted by the motivation to let it be known that hip-hop consumers have a sense of fashion too, and can manifest and reinvent graceful brands to fit their own "ghetto fabulousness." However, the motivation doesn't lie in just displaying their mutiny, but just for the simple fact that like every consumer they enjoy wearing nice clothes. As Arnold points out,

Clothing can act as a disguise that confers power by drawing the wearer into a particular social or cultural group . . . [turning clothes] to visual codes that would [give] them some control of their identity and would express their sense of alienation in a direct and confrontational way. (34)

When hip-hoppers flood the streets with this hybrid of high fashion and street culture, they are once again trying to affiliate themselves with royalty and with the grandeur that comes with wearing these brands, almost defying their place as pariahs in the entire scheme of fashion culture. Stearns agrees with Arnold when he states,

If a person could demonstrate modest achievement in new ways, it could compensate for the disruption of traditional channels. Since I cannot qualify for the traditional costume worn of an established craft-the fancy ceremonial clothing and badges worn by members of a guild-I will buy and wear vivid new clothing styles instead. (31)

As a whole, "disruption" is what customized footwear represents. It creates a new identity, allowing a group of a particular social status, in this case urban youths and rappers, to appear in another light. Furthermore, it exemplifies one of the principal statutes of hip-hop culture: bravado and achievement of praise for materialistic exploits.

All in all, the hybrid of hip-hop shoes and luxury brand fabrics is a microcosm of what fashion means to society, and what it represents to the social structures of America. This footwear not only serves as a byproduct of urban originality, but also as a fresh capitalistic trend that crosses societal borders and exposes the negotiation of conformity and consumer nature. Exemplifying hip-hop culture's disobedience against being subordinated by luxury brands by implementing celebrated and distinguished labels with hip-hop style is a huge step in eradicating the misconceptions and stereotypes have long deterred hip-hop expansion and acknowledgment. For hip-hop fashion to survive, it must continue to perpetuate its aura and reinvent itself without sacrificing its appealing characteristics. In a recent song, rapper Jay-Z says that he is the "young black Ralph Lauren," alluding to the success of his Rocawear clothing line. This is evidence by itself that though big brands may look at hip-hop as an anomaly, urban designers still find inspiration in the threads of their counterparts, only wanting their own piece of the pie in an otherwise lucrative industry. From the 80s, when thick gold chains ruled and a pair of Adidas was the standard, to the blending of present-day customized shoes and designer fabrics, hip-hop is a fashion based on creativity. As long as the originality and ability to turn the unlikely to the popular exists, hip-hop will never cease to capture the imagination of the public, and will always be a fixture as a fashion in contemporary America.

Figures

Figure 1. Figure 2.

Figure 3

Works Cited

Arnold, Rebecca. Fashion, Desire and Anxiety: Image and Morality in the Twentieth Century . New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2001.

Berry, Sarah. "Be Our Brand: Fashion and Personalization on the Web." Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations, Analysis . Ed. Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson. London: Routledge, 2000.

Stearns, Peter N. "The First Causes of Consumerism." Consumerism in World History: The Global Transformation of Desire . New York: Routledge, 2001.

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