OLD SCHOOL HIP-HOP - FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR..

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air is an extremely well known Icon of the 1990's, due to his fun personality, his funky dress sense and of course his role in the t.v series ' The Fresh Prince of Bel Air'.

Where to shop and hang out continued...

MASH

Steering away from the East-end, Mash is an Urban clothing store which has endured great success over its 20 years of being open. Its Flagship store is on Oxford, step inside and you are at the heart of Urban fashion surrounded by clothing of the latest hip-hop brands.

These are 6 of the most well-known Urban clothing brands sold in Mash:

10 deep - founded in 1995
Crooks and Castles - Guns and Wealth Aesthetic
King
LRG
SupremeBeing - founded in 1990's, a Cambridge Urban Street Wear brand
Mishka

IMPERIOUS REX! (75 Roman Road)

“Mighty monarchs of the underground. Beloved and reviled, many are the tales written and whispered about us".

Venturing back into East London, Roman road, you may come across the carefully considered underground clothing store ' Imperious Rex!' This is definitely a place to shop if you are mixed in with the Urban crowd. With the clothes wisely picked out for their own personal reasons and wanting their customers to have the best, there's is no doubt in my mind that you will get your hands on the freshest sweaters, kicks, jackets, jeans, and hats out there!

“High streets for suckers, try and be a little bit special!”

Imperious Rex! Stocks lots of the main Urban clothing brands including 'Rock Smith' which has been around for many years and began to bloom in the 1980's -1990's hip-hop era.

Where to shop and hang out..

The baggy clothes, bright patterns and chunky gold jewellery is hard to find these days, even if todays shops are bringing out modern versions, they still can never live up to the real garments with the real old school feel. Nethertheless, the East of London has nurtured ‘Brick Lane’ into one becoming one of London’s most famous streets, selling all things traditional at their best.

Brick Lane is home to London’s most well known Vintage shops.

ROKIT – 107 Brick Lane. -  Rokit is home to hundreds of vintage treasures, housing lots of fun and quirky garments and accessories, keeping the fashion of modern day as alive and kicking as it was years ago!

As your venturing down the amazingly multicultural brick lane, as an Old School lover, you may be enticed by the Vintage Baseball jacket hanging in the window. Why not go inside? Here are a few garments you may find to suit your taste..

BEYOND RETRO - 110-112 Cheshire Street

Everyone knows about beyond retro, if you don't then you need to get with the system! 

Beyond retro owns a grand collection of vintage luxuries and vintage casual garments. It caters for those who have been sucked into many different eras. The store itself looks enticing, with so many colourful garments and energetic looks on display. Beyond Retro staff members are extremely in touch with the creativity behind creating new looks with old clothes and bringing forward the fashion of many years ago.

If you're looking to be an 'Old School' dude then you will have no problem here.

Colourful Shirts went well with a dungarees, some braces and some gold chains and earrings back in the 1980's.

STYLIST CHLOE RICHARDSON & TRIBAL PRINTS

The Fresh Prince of Bel air was a widely known character in the 1990's and a true representative of the tribal influences of Hip-Hop Fashion within what he wore. 

Being highly influenced by Hip-Hop Fashion, Chloe Richardson is influenced by her Ethnic and Tribal influences.

Missoni - Resort Collection 2011

Marchesa's Tribal Prints.

These are a couple of Chloe's Inspirations.

STYLIST- CHLOE RICHARDSON

Chloe Richardson is a London-based Fashion and Music Stylist. She has had many clients within today current scenes such as Hip-hop, grime, pop music and many other genres. She generally styles music videos and the whole look of the Artist within the video itself.

'DO IT LIKE A DUDE!' Verryyyy OLD SCHOOL . Chloe Richardson styled Jessie J's 'Do It Like A Dude' video. The styling of this video has a very old school feel to it.

Jessie's Baseball Jacket. A strong symbol of old school hip-hop fashion trends.

CHECK OUT THE 'DO IT LIKE A DUDE VIDEO'!!

Styled by : Chloe Richardson

Keep a particular eye out for the OLD SCHOOL references; FLAT PEAKS, BASEBALL JACKETS, HIGH TOP SNEAKERS, CHUNKY GOLD JEWELLERY, BAGGY JEANS AND FITTED GARMENTS IN CONTRAST WITH THE BAGGY GARMENTS. 

ALL OF THESE LADIES DOING IT LIKE A DUDE...Just like back in the day!

FLASHBACKS:

As a stylist, Chloe likes to look back and refer to different influences for ideas. In particular she looks back at the style and distinct trends of people such as 'Lil Kim'.

She also looks back to amazing Old School videos.. the style is brilliant!

CHECK OUT THESE VIDEOS:

This video is such a great example of the Old School Hip-hop scene. The use of vinyls at the beginning, the music, the colourful patterns in the background all the way through to the clothing! It strongly demonstrates the 'boyfriend' look that females adopted in the 1980's - 1990'S Hip-hop scene. Regardless of the baggy clothes they still looked feminine.

Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance

Another Video which she has been influenced by is 'Sky is the Limit' by Biggie Smalls & 112. Biggie Smalls was an extremely influential Hiphop Artist. This video shows the glam dress of Old School hiphop fashion; Gold chunky jewellery. Lots of it!

Looking at these videos, you can immediately see where the influences on Jessie J's do it like a dude video have come from.

HORACE KRAFTWORK LTD

Horace is a fashion label made up of an exciting blend of fashion, textile and illustrative designers ‘Adam Entwisle’, ‘Emma Hales’ and ‘Philip Grisewood’. Their Summer 2011 collection was an impressive example of a great quality, casual collection. It has an overall ‘Old School’ feel to it, from the garments to accessories; of course the currently in fashion thick-rimmed glasses along with hairstyles for instance the extremely hip-hop high top fades! These are specifically late eighties to early nineties features. The large framed glasses are in reference to ‘Cazal’ frames which were particularly popular within the Hip-Hop culture in 1980’s and carried through to the early 90’s.

Starting with the style of the garments in relation to the ‘Old School Hip-Hop’ subculture, Horace as a brand turns very basic cut garments into something amazing to look at with a great colour palette and abstract and bold prints. The Summer 2011 largely presents this idea with a hip-hop feel to it in the menswear. Maybe the whole look with regards to the funky high-top fade and thick-rimmed glasses complete the all round feel?

Throughout the collection a variety of abstract and slightly Aztec prints have been used which are very bold and bright. This was something quite common in American hip-hop fashion in 1990’s and was promoted and also worn by well-known American rappers of that time, such as Lisa ‘left-eye’ Lopez of TLC, Kid n Play and The Fresh Prince. The rappers of ‘N.W.A’ represented the ‘plaid shirt’ style and this became a popular style shirt during their time. In Horace’s special edition 2011 collection an oversized plaid shirt is worn my one of the models along with the plaid fabric look following through in many of the looks created.

A further noticeable feature of the garments in Horace’s Summer 2011 collection is 3D polka dots. Repetitive shapes are a definite when it comes to prints in the 80’s and 90’s. Polka dots were a small part of the scene during this time when Hip-Hop fashion was very strong and ever growing in America and Kwamé, an American rapper, popularized this.

Horace has looked backed and carefully pulled in very specific Old School Hip-Hop trends into their collections. The MC Hammer pants have crept into their Special Edition 2011. These are still undoubtedly popular within fashion today, particularly on the high street market. However, they originate from the dance orientated American rapper ‘MC Hammer’ in the late 1980’s to early 1990’s and were formally known as ‘Blousy Pants’ until MC Hammer popularised these elaborate and baggy trousers and coined the term ‘MC Hammer Pants’.

CARRI MUNDANE - CASSETTE PLAYA

Carri Mundane is an English Fashion Designer working in London on her own label 'Cassette Playa'. She is a menswear designer but has also created clothes for women. Being a very ‘street’ designer, her work relates extremely well to the old school hip-hop subculture. Her design detail consists highly of intricate, repetitive patterns and prints which are a definite factor of clothing in the nineties, particularly west coast USA. Will Smith style is a typical example of how her work could be seen as a more current version of the funky, printed, baggy fashion as seen on ‘The Fresh Prince of Bell Air’. Typical garment styles have been seen within some of Carri’s collections such as oversized shirts and oversized shorts. Typical factors of these garments are size and length. The shorts often come beneath the knee and are of a simple loose shape. The clothes which Carri wears herself are often her own designs. She usually sports baggy T-shirts with funky printed fabric of an exciting range of bright colours, a classic TLC old school look which has been adapted to Carri’s style with her own design aesthetic. Her garments are clearly casual garments but also appear to be slightly glamorous because of the silky, rich fabrics used. Another feature of her garments which resemble the trends of eighties and nineties hip-hop are baseball and bomber jackets. Throughout almost all of her collections there is a different design of one of these style jackets. Some of them are usually printed, others are plain, however, they always have something quirky about them, whether it’s a binding on the edge of pockets or seams which are a contrasting colour, or an exciting print. Throughout her career she has gained lots of experience within the urban and street area of the fashion scene, working with Billionaire Boys Club, Bape and designing and styling for stars such M.I.A. These brands and M.I.A are all heavily part of the street fashion scene and have particularly old school influences. They seem like a perfect match for Carri Mundane, as the garments and designs she creates reflect some of their creations and particularly M.I.A’s style.



As well as the design and shape of garments reflecting the style of eighties and nineties hip-hop, Carri mundane mainly uses trainers as the shoes to go with her designs. She has worked in collaboration with Nike and their ‘Dunk’ trainer which alongside Air forces and Air Jordans, are one of the main style trainers which were worn and extremely popular within the eighties and nineties eras in the USA.






To sum up Carri Mundane’s work in relation to eighties and nineties hip-hop it is simply the original shape baseball jackets, oversized garments and extreme and colourful prints incorporated with nineties nu rave which truly reflect these eras and how they have been brought into the fashion of today.