A distinctive style of dressing originated among the African American youths centering the cities of Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Virginia etc. This style of dressing is known as the Hip Hop fashion or the urban fashion. Urban fashion, as we know it today is not the product of one single city, but all the cities have added some flavor of their own to make it popular. In general, this fashion is closely related to the expressions and the attributes of the hip hop culture. Urban fashion has evolved with the passage of time and it has made its own mark in the fashion world. In the present times it is accepted and followed by people of all ethnicity.
In the 1990s, Tommy Hilfiger was one of the most celebrated and prominent brands regarding sportswear though other brands like Nautica, DKNY, Calvin Klein etc were also popular. When Snoopy Doggy Dogg, the famous American rapper wore a Hilfiger sweatshirt during his performance on Saturday Night Live, all the stocks of that particular shirt were sold out the very next day from the New York City stores. This incident clearly shows the popularity of urban fashion among the American youth population.
The first one to set the trend of the emerging hip hop fashion is Karl Kani. He started a completely new fashion movement by combining his passions, and thereby he was followed by many fashion designers in the near future. In the late 90s many hip hop artists launched their own fashion labels and clothing lines, for instance, Russell Simmons (Phat Farm), Diddy (Sean John), 50Cent (G-Unit Clothing) etc. This fashion genre has been dominated by the upcoming urban clothing lines and will continue to do so.
However, nowadays in the world of the hip hop fashion there has been a resurgence of the old fads with the emerging new ones. In the last few years of the last decade music artists popularized the trend of getting tattoos all over the body. Tygart, Soulja Boy etc are some of the typical examples. Though tattoos have been much common in the film industry, but it has never been of much importance in the hip hop industry.
In spite of its huge popularity, the urban fashion had to face much criticism from the commentators of both the inside and outside communities, regarding the cost of the accouterments of this specific fashion. Some even expressed disappointment regarding expensive hip hop or urban fashion brands in several magazines.
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