Hip-hop music has changed so much over the years. It's no longer the music of the streets; the connection to DJs and B-Boys and graffiti has mostly been severed. But if there's one thing that has remained the same it's the influence of fashion on hip-hop culture and vice-versa. Sacha Jenkins' Sundance documentary Fresh Dressed explores the unique history between high fashion and hip-hop. Through archival footage and interviews with Kanye West, Dapper Dan, Pharrell Williams, and more, the film looks at the evolution of hip-hop culture from the '70s to the present day. Here's the synopsis:
FRESH DRESSED offers a fascinating glimpse inside the complex relationship between fashion and hip-hop, and the hustle and swagger that brought baggy pants and graffiti-drenched jackets from the streets to high fashion catwalks and Middle American shopping malls. Director Sacha Jenkins draws from a rich mix of archival materials from the 70s, 80s and 90s and present day in-depth interviews with more than 70 music and fashion industry luminaries including: Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Nasir Jones, Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane, Riccardo Tisci and André Leon Talley. The result is FRESH DRESSED, a passionate re-telling of the evolution of hip hop culture from the South Bronx to Paris Fashion Week.
I really wanted to see this at Sundance but couldn't fit it into the schedule, but the consensus I heard was that it focuses too much on the fashion of today and stars like Kanye think "being fresh is more important than having money". Yeah, okay. The problem with that statement is nowadays you need big money to be relevant in a fashion sense. That wasn't always the case.
Fresh Dressed hits theaters and VOD on June 26th.
See What Kanye West Thinks Is More Important than Money by Vanity Fair
