American Hip-Hop, designer fashion & logomania

As a subculture emerging from minority groups, the Hip-Hop style includes many details that pay homage to African and Latino fashion and culture. Bangles, gold crosses, hoop earrings, oversized silhouettes, worn jeans, basketball uniforms, sweatpants, bold warm colors and strong geometric patterns.⁵

With celebrity culture on the rise affordable sportswear brands like Adidas and Nike saw opportunities to secure the market of the teens and young adults in the streetwear scene and collaborated with black athletes and rappers. Adidas collaborating with Run DMC after the release of their track “My Adidas” and Nike teaming with the young Micheal Jordan to create the infamous “Air Jordan’s”. These celebrity collaborations created brand loyalty and planted the seeds for the booming $79 billion “sneaker head” industry that exists today.⁶

Dapper Dan

Dapper Dan was an innovator within the fashion scene and is often credited as the creator of the logomania craze. He saw that in a society like America where success is measured by one's monetary value, the quickest way to signal your status and worth is through what you wear.

The large coverage of oversized and repeating logos of popular well-known designers like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Channel was a shorthanded way for people who came from more impoverished and lower-class areas to project their” wealth “and success to the upper-class. Famous rappers could remain aspirational to the people they represent and came from while still signalling a high-class status and wealth.

The Birth of Logomania

Starting in the 80’s, Dapper Dan opened his first boutique, creating his own counterfeit designer fabrics with quality material. Creating his own designs using the logos of famous fashion brands Dapper Dan styled famous black hip-hop artists at the time, like LL Cool, Salt-N-Peppa, and Eric B. & Rakim. Although many of these repeating logo fabric designs were already in use by the luxury companies, they were mostly designated to items like select bags, and trunks, not nearly as broad of a selection as Dapper Dan had created. Famous new money rappers wearing his designs and “repping” (publicly representing) his work in their lyrics gave wave for the young and rich to discover the look.⁷

Although popular within the rap scene, the logomania craze did not reach its peak until the 90’s. Loud and bold, a staple of the late 90’s and early 2000’s the design style finally reached its peak as the designer brands themselves saw what was happening and wanted in on the trend themselves. Collaborating with the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, famous for his bright joyful pieces, Luis Vuitton created what is probably to this day one of the most iconic and popular designer bags of all time.⁸

Today there are luxury companies like Supreme, Off-White, Yeezy, etc. purely dedicated and built upon the streetwear and hip-hop style. What used to be a subculture has become a part of the mainstream. Collaborations between designer brands, rappers and creators like Dapper Dan are now commonplace, giving hip-hop its own secure space in the world of luxury.

When you are stuck in the system of oppression and poverty, it takes a lot of money and work to get out of those structures. The most “affordable luxury” you can achieve is to change your outward appearance and take care of yourself. How you are perceived by others can have a lot to say on how you are perceived by the world. Rappers wearing these designers’ clothes styled in the hip-hop style allows them to signal and project their success and wealth while staying true to their style and roots.⁹