Street style

Streetwear.
Street wear is a distinctive style of fashion not to be confused with hip hop fashion.^[1] Its roots are in skateboarding and the "skatewear" of the 1980s.^[2] It was later adopted as an urban fashion in Japan before growing to an international business.^[2] An important element to the style is vintage or vintage-style sneakers.^[3]
(quoted from wikipedia)

When I am not in a suit, I guess you would classify my main style as 'streetwear'. Even as I write this, what I am wearing is pretty much all streetwear brands. I've been really into the Japanese lifestyle since longer than I can remember. I've also been in to fashion for just as long. When I first saw the aesthetic of these underground brands from America popping up in Japan, I was astonished and amazed. I saw the mixture of American grunge mixed with Japanese sensibility with materials very reminiscent of military uniforms and the such. It was a fresh image to me. Graphic t's, screenprinted hoodies and jeans with slimmer cuts when the only thing anyone was wearing was some denim you could fit 2 other people in. The more I liked the style, the more and more brands popped up, doing the same thing but doing it differently. Today most of the brands involved in the aesthetic are somewhat watered down and just putting out crap just for the sake of putting out stuff, but there are still brands that were out when I was first getting into this fashion shit and they keep going strong. Today, streetwear is pretty much a watered down genre. It's a style built up with a lot of hype and not a lot of reasoning for it. But even though there are the clowns that want to dress like what they see the entertainers wearing and all that, there are the people that do it correctly.

My favorite examples of streetwear, and the people that do it right, are mainly the creators of some of the biggest brands in the genre. For example, Pharrell Williams.

Not only is he the creator of Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream clothing, he is also one the sharpest dressed men in the world in my opinion. Skateboard P is the perfect mix of rebellious biker meets skateboard punk meets world famous rapper meets refined super-producer swag. 

Even super casual, it's super put together.

When I met P at Fashion Week in NYC, he was wearing this outfit. He also had a drug-rug type sweater on, but it just looked right. Confidence is the best accessory and damn does this dude wear it well. After all, we are talking about a man that rocks Chanel...and Bape fishing lures. 

Now if you think street style is just jeans and a t shirt, you are wrong. A good 75% of the people you ask about streetwear, the first thing they say to describe it would probably be "t shirts". But that is where the other guy in the above pictures comes in. KanYe West.

Yeezy. 

If you are asking why most of these pictures are of Ye with his old girl Amber Rose and not his new baby momma Kim K, it is because 1. he dressed better when he was with Am and 2. I do not like Kim. But back to KanYe. Here is a man that has had his ups and downs with the public's opinions on him *insert KanYe shrug* but has always been dressed to the 9's. He is one of those guys that can go from dressing uber preppy, like College Dropout and Late Registration Ye...

(back when they thought pink polo's would hurt the Roc)

...to Givenchy swagging, kilt wearing, leather megging Watch The Throne KanYe. 

We are talking a dude that has his OWN NIKE SNEAKER. Let me say that again. HE HAS 2 OF HIS OWN NIKE SNEAKERS!!!! HE IS NOT AN ATHLETE!!!!!! THE ONLY NON-ATHLETE TO HAVE HIS OWN NIKE SHOE!!!!!!!! 

Behold the Nike Air Yeezy (left) and Nike Air Yeezy 2 NRG (right).

Ok, sorry. I'll put my KanYe love aside.

Back to style. Here is another one of my idols. Nigo, the creator of A Bathing Ape, or Bape. 

(Nigo, shown above with his kick-ass toy collection just goes to show you that men don't grow up, we just learn to handle ourselves in public better.)

The Bape Shark hoodie under a olive drab bomber jacket. Seriously, all this outfit is made up of is a pair of jeans, a t shirt, a hoodie, and a jacket. Let's see anyone else make such a basic outfit look so sharp. 

To me, streetwear is more than just an urbanized graphic shirt, jeans, pair of sneakers, and a hoodie. Anyone can put those on and look like an average Joe. It's the mixing and matching and details and subtle things that make it work. Crazy camo patterns with military clothing, or varsity styled lettering on a biker's denim jacket mixed with vintage pins and buttons from rock bands. Colors, patterns, textures, cuts, and aesthetics. All different than what you see all the time. That's what streetwear means to me. It's that individualistic twist to everyday wear. 

These guys are my inspiration for any and all things streetwear. Nigo, Pharrell, and KanYe.