Hip Hop’s East Coast Style for Spring

Patrick Michael Hughes Senior Fashion Editor Men’s Fashion Writer

Photography by Nick van Tiem

NEW YORK: Hip Hop was born on August 11, 1973, in the West Bronx neighborhood of New York City at a party in a recreational room. Revelers spilled into the playground and on to Sedgwick Avenue as they danced and jammed to the music by DJ KOOL HERC. In August 2022 Christie’s New York held a highly successful auction of the original memorabilia and material culture connected to the event and the legacy of DJ KOOL HERC.

Hip Hop is having a birthday tour in Manhattan’s museum and gallery world. The cultural tidal wave has reached a milestone fifty years old and is being further recognized in cultural. intellectual and fashion histories. The subject is being explored at The Fashion Institute of Technology with the exhibition Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style curated by Elena Romero and at Fotografiska New York a branch of the Swedish photography museum the subject is being presented at show titled Hip Hop: Conscious, Unconscious . Both of these exhibitions highlight Hip Hop’s regional and stylistic diversification. The Public Broadcasting Service recently aired a six part series by Chuck D from Public Enemy a political Hip Hop group founded on Long Island in 1985. His Fight the Power -How Hip Hop Changed the World is a series chronicling Hip Hop’s political awakening over the last fifty years.

Denim Progressed, TOMMY JEANS is a new youth driven collection by American fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger. He is known for cutting-edge denim styles influenced by music and pop and subculture genres with a tremendous followers. Much of Hilfiger’s principal design direction is rooted to a young diverse America. It’s a mainstream designer label with exponentially large Hip-Hop base. This is due to the fact that Hip Hop is NYC Street Style, a noteworthy American fashion genre in the youth, contemporary and emerging elevated designer markets. Much of the Hilfiger’s look is to Hip Hop as the Zoot-Suit was to Harlem’s ‘Lindy Hopping’ youth at the Savoy Ballroom during the 1930’s. The new collection is daytime and house party ready for Saturday night.

Hilfiger has been a music and street style staple as early as 1984. It was part of an urban take on ‘the GQ look’ a form of head to toe styling seen during the Jack Haber editorial leadership of the magazine during the 1970’s to early 1980’s. The style’s is best examples can be spotted in Jamel Shabazz’s, African-American, Black and Hispanic street style photography in New York City. His images are known for documenting community in city settings.

Nick van Tiem is the photographer of the Denim Progressed, TOMMY JEANS Spring /Summer 2023 campaign. The images have been taken on basketball courts, skate parks, laundromats, motels and food service bodegas.Tiem is part a new generation of Amsterdam-based photographers interested in exploring cultures. The often personal work is linked to his own interpretations and misinterpretations of culture. He trained at The Royal Academy of Arts, in London graduating as a documentary photographer working for newspapers. As an independent fashion photographer his work is ‘character-driven- intimate documentary-like portraiture’. He is fresh and ideal choice from the brand. The results have a subtle, inclusive voyeurism leading to a socialized intimacy, geared toward new generation.

In the American retail tradition Tommy Hilfiger is affordable, easy to understand, practical, a three- billion dollar fashion brand with a large market. It’s available in countless stores and malls near you globally. The new Denim Progressed, TOMMY JEANS Spring /Summer 2023 is offering tried and true red, white and blue styles featuring identifiable, fully cut and wide leg denim trousers in light colored washes, degrees of ‘sag’ and inside-leg lengths. The outlined, block varsity lettering of the logo runs down each jean leg. Is a clever take on the brand’s collegiate heritage. The new TOMMY JEANS look is classic East Coast New York style inspired by the brand’s early Hip-Hop roots.