By Rawle Harris
I remember the hip hop fashion I was wearing back in the
mid-80s. Whatever the rappers during that time were wearing, we
also would wear. Most of the rappers were wearing shelltoe
adidas sneakers with the jump suit to match. My mother bought me
my first multi-colored suit from Spiegel, and I was sure as hell
glad for it. My aunt got me my blue on white Adidas to match
earlier, and I thought I was the man. Every Labor Day my mom and
I would go to downtown Newark, NJ and buy Lee jeans to go with
all my LeTigre shirts that I had. Also, when Patrick Ewing adidas
came out you couldn’t tell me a damn thing once I dragged my mom
to the nearest sneaker store to get them, in Knicks colors of
course. |
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The eyewear was
strictly Gazelles, DMC was wearing them so why not us? I had a lot of adidas clothes from the sweat shirts, t-shirts, to obviously the socks
and sneakers. Had the fat laces to go with all my outfits. Later on I
left adidas alone and started to wear Filas, Diadoras, Lottos, and of
course, Nikes. I had the
acid washed jeans to go with
them too, plus the dress shirts with the different color collars to wear
for those dress-up times. Had the leather ties to go with them and some
Michael J. Fox type stuff (remember "Family Ties"?).
Hair
style was always waves in the hair. We wore du-rags back then not for
fashion, but to keep our waves clean and fresh. Some guys I knew wore
them out the house, but not me. I rather just wear my Kangol or my new
snakeskin hat that just came out. Wanted British Knights shoes, but my
mom always slow rolled on that idea so when it was time to get some for
school they didn’t have my size. But I did have those shiny shoes Kid N
Play was wearing at the time.
Hip hop fashion started to change to a
more dignified like look. More button-down shirts, big pants, Bill
Cosby-like sweaters with the turtleneck inside. The Argyle socks were in
too. I couldn’t afford the wear Ballys, Gucci, Louie Vuitton or anything
like that, but I made do with what I could afford, and it came out well.
By the late '80s looking fly was the order of the day. I could go on,
but I get all misty-eyed thinking about those days.