Being consisted of various elements, namely, DJing, rapping, graffiti, b-boy and b-girl, and MC, hip-hop culture comprises a lot of features.  “Hip-hop assembled energetic music, passionate graffiti artists, acrobatic dancers, and skilled wordsmiths in to a unified aesthetic, each in its own way representing a passion for life and a commitment to individual and collective expression” (Emmett, 2006: 41). Accordingly, passion, self-expressiveness, creativity, and innovativeness have significantly shaped the way hip-hop presents itself to the public, in the realm of not only its music but also fashion.

Hip hop fashion epitomizes and upholds the features of hip hop culture by being deviant, out of mainstream, and well-recognizable. Viewing from Fleetwood’s perspective, the “subcultural authenticity” (p. 327) could not be overlooked, such an authenticity “imbues the subject with a mythic sense of virility, danger, and physicality” (p. 327). Yet hip-hop fashion is not composed of one style, rather it is an “essence of mixing” (Fleetwood, 2005: 327). Baggy clothes, sneakers, sheepskin and leather bomber jackets, brightly colored tracksuits, name belts, multiple rings, and heavy gold jewellery are among the most representative items. In their Flava in Ya Gear: Transgressive Politics and the Influence of Hip-Hop on Comtemporary Fashion, Chandler and Chandler-Smith noted that the crucial part of hip-hop fashion is its customization, which is to make the individual costume unique and identifiable. When the old style which was originated from the poor identity gradually lost its regime, the burgeoning trend began to take control; “recent hip-hop promotes high-end acquisition: the most expensive sneaker, twenty-four-karat jewelry, vintage clothes from previous fashion eras, and hair adornment” (Chandler & Chandler-Smith, 2005: 232).

As for the interrelationship of clothing and culture, Horn indicated that clothing is like a cultural mirror from which we could understand a certain group or a culture, “yet it is one of the most visual expressions of the habits, thoughts, techniques, and conditions that characterize a society as a whole” (p. 29).

She further explained that people from a certain culture hold their choices and opinions chiefly based on their personal knowledge and beliefs, and their judgement would finally evoke their actions. In addition, Horn pointed out that “beliefs and values are not inherent, but are acquired in the process of living with others and sharing ideas. The dominant themes of a culture are reflected in those values which are most commonly shared”(p. 75). Apparently, the prevailing values and thoughts in a culture would have a significant effect on how people dress and how they perceive fashion trends.

However, Horn believed that the values relevant to dressing are not isolated, they are always aligned with other important things in peoples’ minds, whether those things are consciously or unconsciously rooted in peoples’ beliefs. Those things include “democracy, equality, beauty, practicality, economy, extravagance, tradition, maturity, progress, individuality, austerity……such are the values and beliefs that are motivating forces in clothing behavior” (p. 81).  Other than that, other factors such as movies, television, magazines, and all types of mass communication mold public opinions on dressing styles as well (Horn, 1968).  Besides, “urban settings, industrialization, and the development of mass transportation” (Cunningham & Lab, 1991: 10) changed the way clothes are being designed as well.

Jeans first appeared in the mid 19^th century in western America. Levi’s was known of the first supplier of blue denim. In distinct contrast with today’s jeans, jeans at that time were the work suits for physical labourers, showing their high functionality. No one could really relate this cheap garment to fashion. During 1920s and 1930s, a group of artists adopted jeans as their tool for their group identity; and Levi’s began to target their consumers from people other than labourers. During the World War II, jeans were labelled as “essential commodities” (Gordon, 1991: 32) performing its duties for thousands of workers. In this period, jeans were on the way to fashion community. After the World War II and through 1950s, anti-fashion (being deviant from mainstream fashion) began to be associated with jeans with their youthful, free, and rebellious connotations. In the 1960s and 1970s, jeans became wide spread with the significantly increasing sale, and jeans were designed with various decorations and embellishments. They became fashionable. Both anti-fashion (austere and personalized style) and fashion (extravagant and delicate style) trends in jeans gained great success (Gordon, 1991: 31-37). Over time, Jeans existed as a noteworthy power in fashion industry and has entrenched themselves in the center of public attention.

In his Understanding Popular Culture, John Fiske made his comment that the “semiotic richness of jeans means that they cannot have a single defined meaning, but they are a resource bank of potential meanings” (1989: 5). Over time, jeans have embodied many different meanings; they are defined as “symbols of rebellion; outlets for personal creativity; emblems of up-to-date, fashionable awareness; and as evidence of generational longing and insecurity” (Gordon, 1991: 31). They represent physical strength, ruggedness, durability, and activity. Their naturalness and sexuality are extended through their physicality. Jeans are appreciated for their informal, classless, and unisex nature; they are able to be applied to either city look or country look. To wear them is to be free from social constraints and class differentiation. They are also the symbols of personalization, leaving much room for self-expression and appreciation (Fiske, 1989: 2-3). For youth, jeans are the incarnation of creativity and rebellion. Every youth movement finds its full expression in jeans, whether it is hippie, punk, or hip-hop (Crane, 2000; Sullivan, 2006).

Jeans and hip-hop bear a lot of similarities in their inherent features. They are both once the marginalized identities, trying to deviate from the mainstream; they both exemplify creativity, personality, and self-expression; they both uphold rebellious images and not afraid to challenge the authority; they both have the potential to gain public interest and they did it, not only within a community or even a nation, but in the range of whole world. With these similarities, it is worthwhile to examine hip-hop’s influence on jeans and jeans’ reflection toward hip-hop.

Jeans, as one of most fashionable and common item in the world, bear multiple meanings and convey multiple attitudes to the society. Meanings in jeans resemble the way hip-hop defines itself; and it would be interesting and meaningful to examine both in terms of their interrelationship. Yet, no effort has been put into this field. Therefore the objective of this paper is to scrutinize the interrelationship between hip-hop and jeans, emphasizing on how hip-hop culture is reflected in jeans, and if jeans from selected hip hop fashion lines will effectively deliver hip-hop images and, in turn, promote them.

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.

For men’s denim jeans, all the latest products display originality and add some extra details to make the jeans recognizable. Rocawear men’s jeans employ a variety of colors, and they also apply a lot of details such as embroidered logo at the waistband or on the back pockets, and contrasting embroidered trim. Phat Farm’s latest men’s denim jeans feature in flap back pockets with embroidered logo crest or stud detailing and single button closure. Sean john’s jeans are generally grouped into three kinds of fit: Clayton Fit, Hamilton Fit, and Gravity Fit. They also embrace a lot of colors such as indigo, overdye black, diesel, and raw indigo; and with each pair, one or two of the details (flap back pockets, embroidery, slight distressed detailing, contrast stitching) are employed. Tommy Hilfiger’s denim jeans are featured in their simplicity, yet, some details are still necessary for their recognition such as light whisker detailing, naturally worn look, and lightly frayed at pockets, hems, or edges.

Image from http://www.thesource.com/2009/08/back-2-school-block-party-and-fashion-show/6780_140662144545_623984545_3309794_2827305_n/

As for women’s jeans, all the labels make their jeans skinny and sexy, trying to highlight women’s curve and character, but for the details, they generally follow the men’s jeans style of their own label. Tommy Hilfiger’s women’s jeans are simple and classic, with various colors. Rocawear’s women’s jeans are fuelled with passion. Baby Phat’s stylish and fashionable jeans flatter the female bodies with their glamorous details.

Image from http://www.thesource.com/2009/08/back-2-school-block-party-and-fashion-show/6780_140662104545_623984545_3309787_4370073_n/

Interestingly, past hip hop style jeans featuring baggy and oversized denims could hardly find their traces in nowadays’ hip hop fashion labels. “Class” is the most used word in their jeans advertisements. Deviant and gangster style seemed to be thrown out of the sight of contemporary hip hop fashion. As hip hop culture is a collection of various values, attitudes, beliefs, and experiences, hip hop fashion is becoming a melting pot of the styles and inspirations from different races, classes, and regions. Hip hop fashion as a fashion genre, is leaning closer toward formal, high-fashioned, and refined clothing style. XXL, a famous hip hop magazine, has selected 10 worst hip hop dressers and 10 best hip hop dressers several months ago. According to their evaluation, the deviant, over-exaggerated street style is out of date and considered for unfashionable and vulgar.

Although jeans from the selected hip hop fashion lines bear some common grounds in representing hip hop culture, each brand’s jeans are different in style and target consumers, and they convey their hip hop messages in different ways.

Tommy Hilfiger’s jeans are simple, classic, clean-cut, and refined. Their jeans aligned with other items from Tommy Hilfiger, carry the meaning of high-fashion, with their tasteful, chic, and polished clothing style. Their targets are more mature people from relatively higher class rather than young people. Tommy Hilfiger, founded in 1984, is among the earliest hip hop fashion lines, yet after over 20 years’ growth, it became less hip hop and more high-fashioned. Although Hilfiger Denim, a branch line under Tommy Hilfiger, targets mainly young people in their advertising campaign (2007, 2009), and infuse passion, rebellion, and energy into their interpretation of jeans, they still follow Tommy Hilfiger’s chic and classic style, and their prices for the jeans are as twice as the prices of jeans from hip hop fashion labels such as Rocawear and Sean John.

FUBU, in the contrast, presents more of a street wear style. Their jeans are characterized by deviant and oversized look with passion and physicality. Two major sources of FUBU apparel inspirations are sport and rappers. FUBU’s design and advertising are closely connected with hip hop.

FUBU’s campaign:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tghngkcme5U

Both Tommy Hilfiger and FUBU find themselves hard to be recognized as hip hop fashion brands, with the former being drifted away from hip hop’s street urban essence and the latter being less famed and remembered. Both labels are hardly found in a hip hop fashion label website. On the contrary, Rocawear, Phat Farm, Baby Phat, and Sean John are known as famous hip hop fashion brands in the public, though their styles are not necessarily street.

Rocawear is founded in 1999 by American rapper Jay-z and former partner Damon Dash with its annual sales of $700 million. Rocawear embraces sportswear style and their jeans are mostly designed for young people. Their jeans are casual, self-expressive, and full of life. Their men’s jeans are more energetic looked with natural fit and informal style, whereas their women’s jeans are more fashionable and sexy. The passion and creativity entrenched in the label design reflect hip hop’s dynamic and the vigour in young people.

Rocawear’s campaign:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DilRon50lA4

Another well-known hip hop fashion line is Phat Farm which is founded in 1992 by hip hop impresario Russell Simmons. “Phat” is an acronymic slang in hip hop for “pretty hot and tempting”. Mixing the sporty urban fashion and Ivy League preppy style, Phat Farm enjoys its popularity among young people. Phat Farm resonates hip hop culture by epitomizing the American lifestyle with its urban aesthetics, youthful energy, and breaking down of stereotype and ethnic boundaries. In 1999, Phat Farm expanded its fashion business and launched Baby Phat, which mainly comprises women’s wear and children’s clothing, as another division of Phat Fashions. Phat Farm and Baby Phat upholds their stylish and urban fashion, magnetizing people towards their aspirational lifestyle.

Phat Fashions campaign:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlMf408_g6g

The last hip hop fashion label studied in the paper is Sean John, launched in 1998 under the name of it founder, hip hop mogul Sean John Combs. Sean John is a hip hop fashion line specializes in urban fashion style. “Mr. Combs created the line to fill the void in the market for well-made, sophisticated fashion forward clothing that also reflected an urban sensibility and style”.

Hip hop fashion labels are trying their best to attract larger consumer demography, and at the same time, highlight their unique style that separate them from their counterparts. They make their jeans as well as other fashion items classic and easy to be embraced. Yet it is almost an irresistible trend that every corporation pursues high-end fashion and high profitable fashion strategies. After all, business is business. Hip hop fashion as a whole is becoming expensive. Extravagant designers’ clothes dominate the market. Long ago, hip hop clothes were highlighted and advertised by the great influence of hip hop; today fashion items from hip hop fashion labels promote hip hop culture to outsiders by their overwhelming glamour and style.

Jeans and hip hop fashion is an uncultivated land for research. Analysis of both fields as well as their intersect are worthwhile since the study of popular culture and fashion could shed light on many social, political, and economic agendas. Further research could be done in studying more hip hop fashion labels and their print advertisements as a means to discover hip hop culture and dressing more in depth, and to examine more social, political, and economic issues within hip hop culture.

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http://www.ehow.com/facts_4968195_what-hip-hop-fashion.html

http://www.thesource.com/2009/08/back-2-school-block-party-and-fashion-show/6780_140662144545_623984545_3309794_2827305_n/

http://www.thesource.com/2009/08/back-2-school-block-party-and-fashion-show/6780_140662104545_623984545_3309787_4370073_n/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tghngkcme5U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DilRon50lA4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlMf408_g6g