Methodology
The study is intended to investigate the following questions:
Q1. How do jeans from selected hip hop fashion lines represent hip hop culture, and to what extent?
Q2. What are different styles and characteristics of jeans from selected hip hop fashion companies’ and what are those fashion companies’ business strategies and goals in hip hop fashion industry as well as in the whole designing fashion industry?
To these ends, several hip hop fashion lines’ products, especially jeans are examined and analysed. These selected hip hop fashion labels include: FUBU, Sean John Clothing, Phat Farm, Baby Phat, Rocawear, and Tommy Hilfiger. This paper employs a textual analysis of the commercials and campaigns, product runway shows, and product images in recent years from these labels. Jeans, in particular, in those commercials and runway shows are examined in the ways of what are those jeans’ designing characters, how those jeans portray the labels’ main style, and how they align with other fashion items to embody the labels’ overall design feature, and to promote the labels’ image in the public.
Another methodology conducted in the paper is political economy. Since the study focuses on jeans from different hip hop fashion lines, those fashion companies’ histories and business strategies will be inevitably investigated. This paper will briefly introduce the companies mentioned in the study, their policies for their jeans and other items, and their positions in the hip hop fashion industry as well as in the whole fashion circle.
