Throwback Thursday: When Burberry Came To The Hood

Urban fashion has come a long way in the past few years. About ten years ago, if your clothes were baggy, matchy-matchy, and adorned with gaudy labels, your fashion was on point. In fact, if everything was the same label, you were probably the best dressed person in your class. However, due to a number of trends & factors, that has all change:

I could blog forever about how things like Cam’ron and the color pink, the veneration of the college kid, man bags, and skinny jeans have changed the face of urban male fashion, but today I’m going to focus on just one thing: when Burberry came to the hood.

We were always a little bit late on fashion in my hometown, but I remember Burberry first touching the urban community in the summer of 2002. Eventually, everybody had on some sneakers with a random snippet of Burberry monogram, and every ghetto beauty supply store had a fake Burberry t-shirt in the window. Before I knew it, it seemed like every high-fashion label was involved in a joint-endeavor with Nike.

Fendi Anyone?

As we all know now, neither Nike nor any major label or fashion house had anything to do with this ghetto s***. In fact, most labels do not even sell monogrammed fabric. So, the closest thing to an authentic Gucci Air Force One could only be made if you bought a real Gucci piece (like a $2500 jacket), cut it apart, and sewed the fabric onto your shoes.

So yes… Even your Burberry Timbs were fake.

For many of us, this was the first time that we every heard of this legendary London label. This trend has definitely caused many fashion victims to victimize themselves even further. However, it also inspired a lot of us to look beyond the constraints of Urban fashion, and get into pieces like this:

this:

& this:

I’m going to close this post with an ode to all fashions ghetto and gaudy, Nelly – “Air Force Ones”

Nelly - Air Force Ones (music video)