Urban clothing is something that is common in the city areas and it’s much more than just a passing phase. For decades, we have seen many stages of urban clothing and it is often associated with urban culture. Urban fashion often characterizes different racial groups, because they have their own preferences. There are also fashion brands that are designed originally for specific racial groups, but now, it is already common among other racial groups. Obviously, there’s no exact definition of urban fashion, because many people have their own preferences. Urban clothing is an important part of the modern fashion and they continue to thrive, while other fashion genres have fizzled out. Urban fashion emerged since late 1970’s and it’s now considered as the old school hip hop era, while others consider it as the golden age of hip hop fashion. In the 1980’s, we often saw people wearing bucket hats and track suits, which can be seen as among the stylish things that people could wear.
In more extreme cases, we may also shiny name belts, large rim glasses, multiple rings on many fingers, shiny oversized earrings and large gold necklaces. The importance of hip hop clothing can be popularized with the word of mouth. People tend to copy one another and people were desperate to keep up. These design styles provided a basis for further stages of further urban clothing progressions. MTV also had important contribution in urban lifestyles. In the 1990’s, urban clothing started to become influenced with the new digital lifestyle. The Internet was in its infancy and people started to share their fashion views to others around the world. This gave people a view on how they should implement their own fashion implementation. This is an important milestone in the urban clothing history. In late 1990’s, we saw a real split on urban clothing style. Some wore heavy work boot, baggy jeans and throwback jerseys.
However, others appeared to prefer mafia style fashion with leather shoes, baller hats and others. Hip hop style also influenced women fashion and they copied some men styles, such as baggy urban appearance, while still embracing their femininity. They may be seen walking with broad, high heels and hip hop elements also found their way to high end fashion concepts. In late 1990’s, gold elements of urban clothing were replaced by platinum and other silvery metals. TV continues to proper urban fashion styles forward, bringing the whole concept to the next level. Today, urban hip hop culture still has solidified position in urban areas. It will always become an important part of modern lifestyle, although not always adopted by everyone. Major brands continue to release fashion items with strong hip hop influences and the digital age will push the hip hop culture to the next level. There’s no doubt that hip hop clothing style will always be around for many years to come. The culture will always evolve and it will continue to influence us.