Fashion Identity And Identity

There are very few studies based on what is now coined “streetwear” or the culture that surrounds it. This is mostly due to it being a combination of a number of different sub cultures and tribes. In order to further understand street wear, it is helpful to understand how consumers portray their identities through what they wear as, “fashion is never innocent and is more than mere appearance” (Barnard, Fashion as communication, 2002)”. Paul Khali Saucier investigated the ways that Cape Verdean youth from the Boston area created individual and social identities through fashion (Cape Verdean Youth Fashion: Identity in clothing). Saucier provided great insight into the sociological perspective of how fashion relates to consumers and society on a larger scale. According to Saucier, “Fashion is a form of non-verbal communication. The dressed body communicates our personal and social identities (Barnard 2002; Barthes 1967; Calefato 2004; Lurie 2000). It expresses our thoughts, feelings, and desires, as well as group membership (Hebdige 1981).” The way people dress is used as an unspoken method of showing the world where they stand in society or how they would like to be perceived. Saucier also referenced Hildi Hendrickson’s book “Clothing and Difference: Embodied Identities in Colonial and post-Colonial Africa” raising the point that, “the body surface is an especially compelling indexical sign. Bodily signifiers present an ever-present semiotic possibility for expressing identity and intention, for asserting the legitimacy of the status-quo or subverting it” (Hendrickson 1996:14–15). This applies to the streetwear market, which is founded upon a rebellious attitude towards the mainstream fashion and culture. In order to explain how ...

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...ly appeals to a young street market but also to a wider age and social group. According to WWD, Saks' Jennings said that he could see two key trend merging in menswear collections: youthful contemporary street wear and Savile Row tailoring, “There is still a gap, but there was more meet in the middle, and the younger designers are maturing and evolving, more so than in the past.”

One of the most essential parts of street wear is the culture itself; Nat Thomson AKA A Silent Flute is an internationally known street wear blogger who summarized streetwear as, “ basically just everything you’ve been into for as long as you can remember, all under one roof. It connects the dots between X-Clan and Butthole Surfers, sneakers and gallery art, fashion and hating fashion… it’s also a cool way to meet people that don’t suck.” (Vogel, S, Streetwear).