higher. he said, hey, guess what? i m going to do urban fashion, but i m not going to do urban fashion. i m going to do high fashion in the urban space. at its heart, sean john was about aspiration so he did this high/low thing at such a big level and turned it into this global brand. he also waon awards for men s wear. i remember being at the company and realizing how big it was, understanding that he was the first african-american to win that award. and you re you know, he was a hip-hop artist crossing over, winning the most prestigious fashion award for the year. winning that award was bigger than sean john. it was bigger than me. you know, when we won that award, as i said, we won that award. we all won it together. he was able to show that a music brand can make major
music so now it s at a point where it s about versace and those high-end brands. i think fashion is cyclic, and everything comes back around, we re at a period where we re trying to buy gucci and mcm, and that happened in the 80s for me. you know. i remember that period. and that s where we re at right now. most urban people really don t want things made by other urban people. they want things made by things that they can t attain, that they want to buy into a dream just like everybody else does. i think we as a culture, we aspire to guy the gucci and louis and eves st. laurent because that represents to us, success. while urban brands were for loyal to the brands that we ys followed. there s always kind of this
to 18 months but you re just taking away another designer s real estate that s really real about it and can give some really good product. you weren t going to wear shady. just were not. i mean, there s nothing that made you think that shady was into fashion. you know, as a consumer, you sort of just knew it was a money play. he put a million dollars behind all of these different brands, and because they had a hot song. you re as hot as your music. when you re a musician coming out with a clothing brand. they are not really serious about this. they re putting out t-shirts, they are putting out this. you re as good as your brand, your music. if your music starts going south, so does the clothing. the fashion industry is fickle. it goes up and down just like the economy. what happened? a number of factors. you had an oversaturation of brands. you had brands moving too fast
their events. i mean, armani suits, you know. mink coats dripping to the floor. however, though, because of hip-hop being a new form of music and something that the youth cater to, basically everybody that was accustomed to wearing suits on stage just started dumbing it down to just keeping it just straight b-boy. the majority of hip-hop artists really just dressed b-boy style where you got on the lee s and you got on the pumas. and a bvd tank top, you know, with your gazelles. it was all part of the hip-hop fashion. hip-hop fashion was kind of derived through the music and kind of, we re not going to follow the rules mentality both in rap music and in fashion.
louis vuitton or gucci. urban young people are always attracted to or addicted to fashion because it is the expression of aspiration, because you grow up in a world where fashion is so important. and a lot of people who are in hip-hop have aspirations and aspiration is, can you go into that store and buy that brand? when you think of versace, ralph lauren, it seems like it s far away, it s a dream. somewhere where you would like to go. and those people could care less about you, you know. but it seems like, if i can grab that and wear that, like i m living a fantasy. tommy hilfiger would show up in the hood and open up a trunk with, lie, clothes and tantamount to it was like it was like the drug dealer giving you a free hit. then you re like, i want more.