"Street Goth"

Street Goth

Street Goth is a look that is getting a lot of attention at the moment which I think has itself good chances of hitting the mainstream. I myself am a fan of the look which has started with big rap artists like Kanye West and A$AP Rocky donning a darker look, Courtesy of Givenchy, Raf Owens, Alexander Wang and Rick Owens.

Now Generic is not quite in the realms of high end, more uses it as a tangent it likes to refer to. So for a full insight into the history of the look, who’s doing it and how to do it I suggest looking towards Highsnobiety and its articles on the subject. Like THISONE.

WHERE IS IT GOING?

As I mentioned before there is a high chance of this look going to the high street, and this week I noticed a "street goth-esque" section in Fast Fashion retailer H&M(another reason behind my disappointed with the denial of a Givenchy Collaboration). The look obviously had to come from somewhere and must exist somewhere already, otherwise no one would be wearing it in the first place and upon further inspection there are a lot of brands that aren't too expensive existing already pushing “the look” with their own twists these do tend to be the “darker” streetwear brands but I have seen a few dropping good pieces to contribute to the look. Here’s a list of who has made some contributions:

10 deep
Actual Pain
Blvck Scvle
Flying Coffin
Fuct
Mishka
Mighty Healthy
Rook
Rebel 8
SSUR

MY FIRST LOOK

Here’s one of those little fashion mock ups all the Tumblr kids and those cheap women’s Gossip magazines make. I made this to show the look in full but without anything too bank breaking. 

Infamous Red Box part.2

The Infamous Red Box

Part.2

Supreme:
Supreme started in 1994 with it's feet firmly anchored in the downtown New York street culture. The brand slowly began to offer a hiqher quality of clothing than that of other skate brands of the time. Which as a result of it's own efforts slowly elevated itself above other brands, quickly building itself collaborations with big brands such as Vans and The North Face and in turn gaining a reputation,respect and success.

Elevation

According to the Supreme website "Supreme grew to be the embodiment of the downtown culture, Playing an integral part in its constant regeneration. Skaters, Punks, Hip-Hop Heads -the young counter-culture at large- all gravitated towards Supreme". Now let's look at that seperately is that them  justifying their place in streetwear market? or giving a good representation of their fan base? Well it does prove them as having the right stance and audience to be streetwear and if we look at their collaberations ALL of those sections have been accounted for:

• Skaters:- The multiple Vans and Nike SB collaberations have accounted for skaters.
• Punks:- If there is any band that could've both accounted for punk culture but also offer a healthy range of designs the bad brains collaberation in 2008 ticks that box too
• "Hip-Hop Heads":- 2006's Public Enemy collaberation not only proved that hip-hop culture was an influence for supreme but proved it knew what it was doing and prove themselves as one of the most critically acclaimed streetwear brands around
• "counter-culture at large":- the only real part of counter-culture that has not been acounted for is (arguably) the heaviest in influencing streetwear: Graffiti. The collaboration with Futura 2000 has this covered too.

So in my books supreme can be called a streetwear brand as much as any other. It's heart, roots, and friends are definately in the right places. So what's my issue?

Hype. Too much of it.

As i mentioned before in the Nike SB x Heritage article Supreme (similar to obey) is having its message slowly alienated by it's affiliation with big artists, in particuluar OddFuture. On the internet it is almost impossible to see a picture of Supreme without some pre-adolescent kid, who thinks that "swag" is style, commenting with the standard "OFWGKTA!!". This is my issue, such uneducated and one dimensional views on fashion are alienating brands by association outside of the brands control. BUT there is hope yet! "OF clothing". Yes. OddFuture have released their own brand. All I can hope is that this will take the focus off Supreme and give "the kids" something new to buy into. Which won't affect the perception of culture, because in all honesty, I don't want to be grouped with little brats who spent their parents money on box logo tees and 5panels because they think a guy who calls himself wolf is a god.