Introduction

What I think Fashion is a primary symbol in the construction and reconstruction of identity. It implies a move away from clothing as necessity, to clothing as a display of identity. Fashion is dynamic in that it allows individuals to express individual and group difference, while also allowing conformity with a group. In other words, fashion is an intensely personal phenomenon since creates difference, yet, simultaneously, it is a phenomenon in that it creates solidarity; it allows personal values to be expressed at the same time norms are followed (Simmel 1904). For instance, wearing a National Basketball Association (NBA) authentic basketball jersey conforms to a current fashion trend within hip-hop culture. Yet, wearing a NBA jersey specific to the wearer's hometown and with one's last name imprinted on the back, as opposed to the last name of a real NBA player, creates a level of distinction among those who wear NBA jerseys within hip-hop culture.

Discussion

Over the centuries, fashion has been one of the ways in which people of the African Diaspora have created their sense of self, sense of community, and sense of place. Bodily practices have been almost as important as political manifestos in the struggle for freedom, agency, and identity. Often political ideologies are accompanied by sartorial practices. Thus, there is an added importance to the ways in which black people in Diaspora have dressed and adorned themselves. For example, black cultural nationalism promoted by Mulana Karenga and other cultural nationalists of the 1960s and 1970s advocated for natural hairstyles (e.g. the Afro) and African-styled clothing, such as the dashikis. In many ways, members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense are known more for wearing black leather coats and black berets than for their political radicalism.

To be black and young is to dress in accordance with the sartorial ethos of hip-hop culture. Hip-hop fashion expresses the ideas and attitudes of hip-hop culture. Hip-bop style is, and bas been for over thirty years, an extension of black style and fashion. It is a style that has appropriated and experimented with other taste cultures. In the 1980s, hip-bop fashion included sportswear brands such as Le Croq Sportif and Adidas.

Clark's shoes, namely Wallabees, and Adidas shell-toe sneakers were the footwear of choice, while popular accessories included Kangol bucket hats and heavy gold jewelry. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, "African cool" replaced the sartorial practices of ...