What is streetwire and where did it come from?

Over the past couple of years, the word streetwear has become firmly established in the vocabulary of stylists and fashionistas around the world. In Russian, the term translates as “streetwear”, but in common usage it has taken root as “streetwear” or “streetstyle” and means a near-sporty style inspired by the subcultures of skaters and early hip-hop fans. Let’s take a closer look at this fashion trend.

stylist, image consultant

Streetwear always reflects freedom of expression, comfort and convenience, but at the same time does not accept strong pretentiousness. In my opinion, it takes the most practical elements from subcultures and skillfully incorporates them into itself.

What is streetwear?

Streetwear is a by-product of several American subcultures of the 60s and 70s: surfing, skateboarding and hip-hop. They mandated that their followers wear comfortable, lightweight, and branded clothing, whether it be stretchy T-shirts, wide jeans, size-less bombers, or athletic shorts.

These things always look casual, relaxed and even a little marginal, without any claim to high fashion status. Over time, this look became the main trend of modernity, thanks to which appeared the style of normcore, the main feature of which is the desire to be and dress like everyone else. And streetwear went beyond subcultures and became an inseparable part of the Zoomer generation.

Clothes that emerged on the streets and for the streets, moved to Milan and Paris ateliers, on the world’s catwalks and in luxury stores. In the end, the line between street and any other clothing among customers has been erased, and sweatshirts became so much in everyone’s closet that even famous designers began to add them to their collections.

stylist, image consultant

Groups of people came together and carried their values to the world. I think the biggest influence on street style is hip-hop culture, a lot of things were borrowed from rappers, such elements of clothing as hoodies, joggers, caps, olympics, panamas, sneakers, etc. In modern streetwear we see elements of biker and rocker subculture, these are kosuhi jackets and rough lace-up boots and, of course, jeans, which are also elements of many styles.

Where did street fashion originate?

Some fashion historians say that streetwear originated in England in the 50s. The impetus for the emergence of a new style was the conflict of generations, new views on the world, the emergence of subcultures in society, new music and trends in art, which were reflected in the external image of many Englishmen. Unusual combinations of fabrics, bright colors, non-standard solutions in the formation of the image – that distinguished the English street fashion for many years.

The second argue that streetwear appeared in Japan in the 80s of the last century, due to the fact that not all residents wanted to wear classic clothes, which were dictated by the government. During this period, anime and manga as a protest become mainstream forms of entertainment, and many Japanese began to fanaticize their favorite characters and dress in a similar manner. Harajuku Quarter has become a place where Japanese people come every Sunday wearing different styles of clothing and cosplay costumes to have a bright and colorful day, and many designers working on their collections draw inspiration from the area.

When did streetwear appear in Russia?

Street fashion came to us in the late 80s with the emergence of new subcultures. Its first manifestations were bold new works of art and new music. Russia was cut off from things from the Western world for a long time. As soon as a new non-standard thing appeared (for example, adidas sports pants in the 80s), it had popularity because of its scarcity and was valued higher, but when the demand becomes greater, the interest in it gradually disappears.

In the noughties, with the emergence in our country of a new musical trend hip-hop style appeared – swag, and with the emergence of gothic subculture – clothing in the style of dark avant-garde. After a while, things characteristic of this or that subculture can be worn by absolutely all people, even those who do not belong to it, because everything is reflected in the mass-market.