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Fashion can be a very serious business. Several codes, references, ways you do things and things you do not do. Of course there is also a lot of creativity, freedom and imagination. Someone said Fashion comes from the streets and he was not wrong as fashion is in the streets and it is part of the street culture.

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According to wikipedia, street culture is related to several youth subculture or counterculture topics pertaining to outdoors of urban centers. These can include street art, street dance, hip-hop culture, fashion or street sports (parkour, skating, streetball, Flatland BMX).

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Credits: Camilo Henao

Street fashion do not come from the nice design studios. It comes from the grassroots. It is often linked to youth culture and developed in most of big urban centers. Inspirations come from the streets and even high-end fashion brands get this inspiration to create their collections. Streetwear, also known as urban fashion is a distinctive style of dress originating with African American youth on the scene of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Detroit, Memphis, Virginia, Atlanta, and St. Louis among others. Each city contributed various elements to its overall style seen worldwide today.

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If we check the different movements, we could say that:

  • Hippies brought us the Denim and the psychedelic imagery
  • Punk fashion and skinheads brought ripped clothing, provocative t-shirts slogans. For example brands like Fred Perry or Dr Martens definitely got their universe from there.
  • Gothic fashion was never as big as today with heavy coats, big boots or extravagant make-up, like what Jeffrey Campbell did in some of his shoes collections.
  • Hip hop with their extra-large trousers with brands like Fubu or Ecko, Sean Jean or even Nike.
  • Rasta with the famous rasta caps or the dreadlock
  • Skate culture with Vans shoes.

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Of course with fashion people, certain things became more sophisticated and there is a clear separation of the true street brands, today based on skate and hip hop urban cultures, and the pure fashion brands who gets you into an urban mobility/active life.

For a true street immersion, you can also connect to Karmaloop.com, the online store for “Global concrete culture”. Hundreds of brands, all selected for their authentic street style. Originally from Boston, Karmaloop opened an amazing flagship store in its birth town.

In Paris, world capital of fashion, you can also find an amazing streetwear Department store called Citadium. 6,000 m2, more than 250 brands, a thousand references in 4 floors. Considered as the temple of street fashion, it was founded in 2000 by the same group as Le Printemps.

So Street culture is everywhere and fashion crystallizes the best of all influences.

LA

 

Info sourced on brands websites and wikipedia. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.