Are There Too Many Hip-hop Stores?

I knew that hip-hop fashion had finally grown up and was here to stay when they started selling it at Macy's. I also knew that they were taking it to the next level when the stuff was as pricey, if not more than the offerings of other fashion designers. I've never hated hip-hop fashion, but I have been indifferent to it for quite some time. For one of a few reasons; in my day hip-hop fashion had more to do with the cut, as long as it was loose and baggy that was all that mattered. You wore whatever designers you wanted to, in fact the contradiction of stuffy fashion being worn the wrong way was refreshing, so that was the statement we made at the time. I was never that interested in Polo Sport or Tommy Hilfiger, because it was designed with the hip-hop/urban fashion ethos in mind, but I did like finding stuff British styles or minimalist European fashion and trying to make my own look out of that, because it was something you simply weren't supposed to do.

That fascination with hip-hop fashion ended as the turn of the millennium came around and I had to dress seriously so that I would be taken seriously in the workplace. I stopped going to those little boutiques, many of which are out of business, and stopped browsing the clearance racks at the discount stores for the latest FUBU. My look changed and I thought I had left prototypical urban fashion behind me.

But then I got some early pre mid-age crisis and felt that I was out of the loop. Seeing that inner city kids weren't interested in those labels I were they went back to what they were doing and got even more conservative, but to fill in the void and to make sense of the confusion that urban fashion had become a few select labels stood out; Phat Farm was still at it, Rocawear was coming into their own and Baby Phat began to make waves, not to mention the fact that Sean Jean offered something distinctly different at the time. The older labels of the eighties and nineties were dead on arrival, in fact Phat Farm was actually beginning to take somewhat of a decline.

Names aside I figured that all that really represented was the homogenization of hip-hop fashion; something that was desperately needed in order for it to survive in the long term and give it some legitimacy in the first place, so I didn't pay it much mind. What I did notice were that there was a newer, third generation of urban fashion coming through offering luxurious fabrics and a look that was definitely a bit more aggressive and artistic than anything that had come before it.

Things began to change, labels like LRG, Evisu, BAPE & Parish were overpriced, but did offer clothing I could see myself wearing because the quality was more on par with where I was going. The designs, not so much, but if I could find something somewhat conservative I could sneak into it. That wasn't where hip-hop fashion was going (in fact was never were it was coming from either) but I could respect the fact that the materials were a lot better than they were back when Ecko was a big deal.

This leaves me in a weird place. First of all the department stores, who took forever to get into selling urban wear, no longer offer the cutting edge stuff anymore, second I can shop at the "ghetto mall" which has nothing but boutiques with 18 year olds buying the same stuff they wear. Hip-hop fashion is changing at an amazing pace, designers that are hot now are DOA 6 months from now it seems; the old "shelf-life" of a designer being able to get a good 5 or 10 years out of the game are somewhat behind us. Some of the older hip-hop labels from the eighties and nineties are still around, particularly overseas, but the overwhelmingly majority of them; not because of the fashion and the styles, but not understanding the fickle nature of the business, are no longer with us.

It's nothing to pay $150 for a t-shirt or $300 for some jeans you simply do not want to wear next season, so if you're trying to find fashion to invest into and "build up your wardrobe", this is probably not it. You also have in some cities where you have the mall that mostly caters to those under 25; they'll try to have something for the older set, try is the key term here, but those same stores will find themselves packing up and leaving for other grounds, most likely somewhere downtown or out in suburbia, when sales tank. I don't hate those malls though; the people have spoken up and dictated that this is what works for them, and what they want, and quite honestly there are plenty of malls, and other stores, for those my age somewhere else.

Yet it is still sad to see a New York & Company or an Eddie Bauer or Gap close and head elsewhere because the demographic isn't supporting that mall anymore. What I haven't seen are department stores working around that concept doing the same with urban fashion, as department stores used to do with American sportswear 20 years ago. Certainly there are enough labels with high-end merchandise to support such a store, even a multilevel one, and enough enthusiasts of those labels to support them. But until then we'll continue to see small boutiques offering high-end hip-hop fashion at a premium; while the department stores and everyone else is having sales, these stores are still selling what some of us consider to be junk clothing at a fairly high price, it makes you reevaluate yourself for a second. On the other hand, one of the great stores in the area are having an out of business sale; sure they sold high-end hip-hop fashion, from 10 years ago (they're still selling Iceberg and Helly Hanson in there) but they aren't selling things, another casuality, sure, but they'll replaced by 5 other stores next year ...