Streetwear has been the dominant fashion term of the last few decades. Streetwear is everywhere, and that's why everyone thinks they know what streetwear is and what rules it follows, especially the big fashion houses and the hottest labels. And they make one mistake after another. Because streetwear follows its own rules. The first is that there are no rules.
No, streetwear does not mean that all young working men over 40 suddenly have to collectively wear tight jeans and white sneakers as if by secret order , as we have been seeing everywhere for a few years. Streetwear works very subtly, and actually it doesn't "work" at all, and that is exactly what makes dealing with it so exciting and the misunderstanding so great for most people. An example: In spring 2023, another one of those classy, heavy, elegantly designed coffee table books was published, with which you can bring into your own four walls, for a slightly overpriced price, exactly what you yourself are missing, but what you would like to radiate to guests. In this case, "Coolness . The casual elegance of freedom". On the front Romy Schneider and Alain Delon, radiantly beautiful as always, inside a lot of familiar and not so subtle things like Ray-Ban, Rolex and of course Steve McQueen, whose additional title "The King of Cool" is now apparently required by law in case there is any ignorant person on earth, and on the back a few pithy sentences saying that here you can find out what has always been cool, that this is about the "attitude and aesthetics" of coolness, about coolness as an "attitude and way of life", but that at the same time it is of course true that anyone who wants to be cool is of course totally uncool, because only if you are not cool are you and so on and so forth. While you are still trying to unravel the knot in your own brain, you rub your eyes in disbelief and think that the publishers could have just written "If you are cool, don't buy this book" on the cover . In addition to the chic book, there is of course also the pop-up exhibition in the Porsche Brandstore Stuttgart and the Spotify playlist with Chris Rea and Michael Bublé for the holistic experience. Isn't that cool? Let's put it this way: parts of my answer might unsettle you. But that's secondary here for now, because what's much more interesting is that this tense mess shows exactly how coolness, trends, hypes and thus also subcultures and streetwear don't work.
You can't spell subculture without "cult," and if there is any rule at all related to subcultures, it is that a cult cannot be artificially created. Especially not by publishers, fashion houses, advertising departments or marketing strategists. Any attempts in this direction have usually failed miserably or achieved notoriety, like the badly botched PR stunt by fashion house Balenciaga in 2022, which wanted to buy the desired street credibility with Kanye West and ended up dealing with an anti-Semitic idiot, which led to the exact opposite. Or did it not? Because streetwear follows no rules? Because there is no such thing as bad advertising? True to the old PR motto "Call me asshole, but spell my name correctly"? Yes, it is complicated. Because cool people on the street have an unmistakable nose for anything that is not really authentic, but was conceived on the flip charts of commercial companies . After all, streetwear was and is always, first and foremost, an expression of individuality, of non-conformism, of being different, of testing and resetting boundaries. To understand what this means, you first have to realize that up until the turn of the 20th century, everything that could be encompassed by the term "fashion" was reserved exclusively for the rich, privileged part of humanity. In other words, only the wealthy could afford to express their personality through special clothing . The rest of the working population wore mainly functional clothing that was intended for carrying out their mostly physical activities; aspects such as fashion, individuality or zeitgeist played no role here. At most, you could set yourself apart from your fellow human beings in the nano range with your Sunday suit or dress, otherwise conformism and functionality were the order of the day.
Photo • Trinity Mirror, Mirrorpix, Alamy Stock Photo
If you look at old photos of construction or dock workers from the turn of the century, you will see how some of the people portrayed wear their work clothes more casually than others: a vest is only buttoned at the top button, shirt sleeves are rolled up, a cap is casually pushed back on the neck or worn at an angle , a trouser leg is rolled up and a cigarette is tucked behind the ear. Small signs of individuality, even of a certain rebelliousness, like a sign to those in power: OK, we are workers and cannot afford fashion, but we are exploring the boundaries of the world imposed on us and irritating you with ideas and codes that belong to us and that are provocative and cool. Even if of course no one had a concrete idea of "cool" back then . In retrospect, this transformation at the turn of the century can be seen as the origin of what would later be called "streetwear". Another key feature is the decontextualization of work clothing . To put it a little less pompously: shoes, trousers or jackets from the working world are now also worn in private, are modified, altered or deliberately worn "out of context". For example: the trouser leg of a pair of work trousers made of linen or denim was originally rolled up or turned up because factories or shipyards usually had one size fits all, which did not fit every worker ; or because the trousers were inherited from someone else, as was the case in families where the older brother's clothes had to be worn by the younger brother. At some point, however, workers began to simply turn up their trouser legs, without any specific reason or practical use, but rather because it was an expression of their belonging to a certain class or because they simply thought it looked more casual and their boots could be seen better underneath. Later, in the 1950s, this style was adopted by the American rockabillies or the English teddy boys , who rolled up their jeans or slacks. The first generation of British skinheads at the end of the 1960s also rolled up their jeans or wore “high- water” trousers so that their heavy work boots with air-cushioned soles could be seen. Until then, these boots had been worn by railway workers, postal workers and other workers who had to walk a lot and work hard in their everyday lives. The message behind this was that we don’t need fashion, we make our own style and it has something to do with our origins – and that has nothing to do with the world of the rich and beautiful, glossy magazines and shopping windows, but rather with the street. This message was extremely strong and was particularly well received by young people.
The influence of military clothing was at least as important as the influence of work clothes on early streetwear . After the end of the First World War , it was already noticeable how ex-soldiers returning home in England had taken a liking to their trusty boots and were now wearing them in private. But the Second World War was even more influential: from the end of the 1940s, both the trench coat (originally produced for the trenches ) and the British Warm (a woolen overcoat for the uniform) were seen more and more frequently on the streets, as were cargo pants, flight jackets, aviator glasses and so on.
The biker culture that emerged primarily in the USA and England - which can be traced back to war veterans who had taken a liking to their heavy machines from military service and now wanted to continue tinkering and driving around - had a significant influence here. This in turn influenced the creation of the early look of rock'n'roll culture a few years later, with leather jackets, engineer boots, white T-shirts and leather caps. The British teddy boys of the 50s combined this look with elements from the post-Victorian clothing style of King Edward VII at the turn of the century. The early punks of the 70s quoted this and compiled it again, and the psychobillies of the 80s transformed it into a harder version.
Whole books could be filled with examples of how, when and where which element from the world of work or the military influenced which subculture or which streetwear - but the why is the really exciting question, and it is the one that has always puzzled product developers, fashion designers and advertising agencies. Because in the last hundred years, almost no one has succeeded in artificially producing a look that was also accepted and picked up by the street. The most famous exception to this is Vivienne Westwood, who, from 1976 onwards, marketed the look that everyone associates with punk to this day – spiky, colourful hair, safety pins, ripped T-shirts and Domestos jeans – although the authentic punk look had absolutely nothing to do with it and had already emerged years earlier through iconic pioneers such as the New York Dolls, MC5 or Iggy Pop & The Stooges, and which consisted of an exciting mixture of rock'n'roll clothes and cross-dressing.
In general, it is interesting to observe how street wear changes and how certain items of clothing that are clearly linked to a statement, i.e. a subcultural code, diffuse over the years through subtle currents into completely different subcultures. Let's take the example of the work shoe with the air-cushioned sole mentioned above, which became popular through the early skinheads and then through the punks : up until the early 1990s, the originally German Doc Martens boot was something downright sacred that you couldn't just buy or were allowed to buy, but instead you had to work or earn some kind of permission to buy it from the respective subcultural gang in your city that you wanted to belong to as a young person. And once you finally owned such a sacred shoe , the color of the laces next determined whether you spent the evening chain-smoking with your new mates in the pub or ended up in the emergency room with a broken nose . Yes, a shoe and its context could be that important. Nowadays, Doc Martens can be bought in every shopping center and the company, which belongs to Permira, is worth billions. They are worn by everyone from emo kids to urban hipsters to Taylor Swift fan girls and their mothers, none of whom have the slightest idea where their Docs still have the rebellious image from. And that's not a bad thing, because it just proves once again the uncontrollability of streetwear, which is based on a very small group of insiders creating a style that you would never think of in your life.
Here is another very famous and legendary example: the emergence of hip-hop culture was significantly influenced by Germany, both musically and in terms of clothing - but not because Germany was in any way cool at the end of the 70s, but quite the opposite, because it was the most bizarre thing you could imagine. Which is of course totally cool, you understand. It is well known how Kraftwerk's music influenced early New York and Detroit hip-hop, but why the black kids wore Adidas tracksuits and sneakers was not really known (legend has it that they were imported via German exchange students at American high schools and colleges). Decades later, this now established and mainstream look is being refreshed again in a way that no one could have imagined: Pharrell Williams appears at the 2014 Grammy Awards wearing a red Adidas tracksuit jacket, heavy work boots and the oversized Mountie hat of the Canadian mounted police. A completely new, completely absurd and at the same time completely ingeniously casual look that not only demonstrates Williams' understanding of the historical and pop-cultural significance of workwear for streetwear, but also goes through the roof in the media. At that moment, you could practically hear all the PR managers and advertising agents banging their foreheads on the glass tables in their corner offices in unison and sobbing in despair about why they hadn't thought of something as cool themselves. The example of Adidas in American hip hop has also worked in the other direction for a good two decades : Here in Germany, brands like Carhartt and Dickies are an inseparable part of streetwear on German streets and have diffused into the hip hop and rap scene as well as the world of house and electro and the indie kids. In the USA in the Midwest, however, these American brands are still part of the workwear of construction workers and therefore have a coolness factor of just above zero.
Pages of wonderful examples of such marketing-ruling-defying examples of how completely contradictory and, at first glance, absurd clothing elements became an integral part of a subculture or a specific streetwear style could be found. And I'm sure you can think of dozens of similar crazy-cool stories right now , for example about footballers wearing floor-length, huge down jackets, or LVMH's Birkenstock sandals at Paris fashion shows, or Japanese souvenir jackets made of satin, or purses with heavy chains or leather straps, and so on.
But you know what: The best thing is to create your very own, very individual streetwear style right away. Follow the only law of the street that there are no laws for streetwear! Be your own subculture! The times are joyless enough, so at least have fun with your own personal style. It will become authentic and cool all by itself.
Author • Mathias Lösel
Photo • Julian Myles, Unsplash
Published in Heritage Post No. 49