Starting the first unit of my parsons online streetwear course, I was amazed. I had never seen academic works so recent describing the variations between streetwear so accurately and something that reflects my initial 2019/2020 ethnographic research. Here are some of my notes I took:
- Streetwear is a broad and imperfect label–its meaning malleable, contested, and endlessly reimagined.
- Some see it as a rebellious expression of the lifestyles of marginalized populations, a subset of fashion imbued with racial and socio-economic undertones.
- Others would argue that it only represents a market segment, big business devoid of its original, authentic origins in subculture. Yet no matter how one defines it, streetwear is part of our global lexicon.
- what you are creating is born from the streets as culture
- Then you have these, the most recent iteration of this kind of category that we carry is streetwear that’s highly inspired by high fashion. (Examples include Fear of God; Off White; Rhude; John Elliott) Where it’s streetwear but it’s not made the same way street wear’s technically been made. It’s made through the lens of high fashion.
- “Union was the birthplace of streetwear in a more simplified way in that it was tees, sneakers, sweatshirts, hats, that kind of thing. So if anything it might have been born that way, but it had to grow up and evolve. So it evolved and evolved and started to do more like cut and sew, more like pants, jackets, so on and so forth.
- At some point that was kind of latched onto very seriously by the Japanese market. And Japan started making their version of this thing that started in New York, what I believe to be started at Union in Soho.
- And their version was much higher end. They kind of mixed, like took the sensibilities of streetwear but ran it through almost like a high fashion kind of program.
- And then there’s another category, which we don’t really carry in the store, but now that begets the opposite of that, which is high fashion’s now taking notes from streetwear. And we don’t have that, but I think everybody understands when they look at Balenciaga and what they’re doing. They’re part of a bigger machine.
- Streetwear is hot right now, so that’s what they’re going to do. But in two years it could be something very much different and those brands have like 80 plus or whatever years where they’re going to switch and it won’t necessarily fit within Union. So I don’t think it’s honest, it’s nothing against the brands.”