♪ are you ready? let me tell you something. home boys home girl on the spot, let me ask you, what's your name? where you from? and your name? where you from? >> money making manhattan. >> you all look kind of fresh. tell me about your fashion. what are these shoe snz. >> these are adidas with fat laces. that's the way we sport them. >> what do you call the fashion overall? >> fresh. >> word. word. let me ask you something. what about your fashion, your look? how do you describe it? >> i call it, you know, v-boy threads in a way. a pair of white on white adidas, fat laces. >> how you rock your hat, man? >> i sport express, holmes. >> word. word. ♪ party people party people

♪ gonna get funky yeah >> being fresh is more important than having money. the entire time i grew up, it was like i only wanted money so i could be fresh. >> fashion is a whole other thing. when you're young, there's like a sense of wanting to express yourself, an importance in individuality. >> the hip-hop culture is not just about video. it's also about a lifestyle. it's people who are free exploring their creativity to a kind of free words, rhymes, language, music, or visual style. >> the hip-hop culture had a boldness to it. you wanted everybody to know you was down with this movement.

fresh to death like a million bucks. >> come on, we were big dreamers. all of us. hip-hop was based on that dream of getting it and coming up out the ghetto, the light at the end of the tunnel was always, you know, the pot of gold, the clothes, the fashion. >> said to me, your clothes are your wings. so, you know, if you want to fly, these dudes want to be fly so they going to put on something nice. and why shouldn't they? and by doing that, once we put it on, it's a whole different story. you know what i'm saying? we put on your clothes and we take it to the next level.

>> the animal kingdom in the human being world is parallel crazy. peacocks, the way they flair up to attract their mate, certain animals change up their whole appearance, it's all about their flair, what you look like or how does it radiate off of you. and certain african chiefs were really ostentatious or out there with their garb. like kings and how they were painted in great britain. look at the outfits they're wearing. they look like kings, royalty. so wardrobe has always been a thing, you know. >> if you go through the history of african-american culture, particularly in the 20th century, style, fashion, clothes were always a very prominent

part of people's identity. it allows one to sort of represent, define their own presentation to the world, so to speak. even for people who maybe didn't have money, their own unique way of wearing something came to be a way for people to be distinct, to be identified in a crowd, to stand out. and i think over time you think about the role religion has played in african-american culture, going to church, the opportunity to dress up, it was expected that one would be dressed a certain way, that you would look your best. ♪ i want jesus to walk with me >> the term "sunday best" came from a time in slavery when in order for slave owners to be considered good christians they had to make sure that their

slaves had at least one good outfit so that they could go to church on sunday. even though most of them were practicing other african indigenous religions. >> certainly you did put your best on when you went to church on sunday morning. >> when you got to church, you saw fashion merging with the music because the gospel choir was always the thing to watch. >> this is a very important factor of how you see style, is the religious environment of the church. >> if you talk about african-american culture, music especially, jazz, blues, hip-hop, any sort of genre of music, r&b, there's always a unique clothing style, unique approach to fashion that goes with that. >> in terms of how hip-hop and

urban hip-hop and fashion and music have fused together to be a cultural influence, i think one has to look back and start with someone like little richard. little richard to me was an extravagant, outlandish black version of liberace without the sequins. little richard was and is still an iconic symbol of freedom. >> music can make you feel free. and a performer and what he says in his lyrics can make you feel free and give you a sense of your freedom. >> considering all african-americans have experienced in american society over time, in spite of that, you know, this sense that if you

look good you feel good is something that i think speaks to why fashion and style has been so significant over the course of time. >> this is the bronx in new york. 1.5 million people live in this borough, equal to the population of houston or washington or san diego. it's the home of the new york yankees, the bronx zoo and the grand concourse. it has also become the arson capital of the world. ♪ a rat done bit my sister nell ♪ her face and arms began to swell and whitey's on the moon ♪ ♪ i can't pay no doctor bills but whitey's on the moon ♪ ♪ ten years from now i'll be paying still while whitey's on the moon ♪ >> the street is where everything happens. it's where you can go and stake out a piece of who you are.

>> the '70s in the south bronx, everything was burning. i particularly lived in a building where i was the only tenant. my parents were the only tenants in a building that held 50 apartments. we had no heat. we had no hot water. they were killing up the ying yang. police brutality was worse than it is now. that's where gangs began. >> they tried to take over one of my divisions. they didn't quite make it and we killed two of their guys. they tried to burn down my -- ♪ whatever we do our boys don't get hurt ♪ ♪ we pick them up and we keep going that's it ♪ we get home, man, whatever colors we got or whatever, we just take them, throw them up on the pole. see which one of them members is bad enough to try to climb up an get it. >> it was extremely important on how you dressed. so you must at all times have

black jeans at a time there were -- and motorcycle jackets and on top of the motorcycle jackets were denim jackets, cut sleeves. it's what they called them. >> those are our enemies right there. >> the art of customizing hip-hop for the most part got that from the so-called gangs or street families, without a doubt. >> i actually cut each of these letters out myself, put it on, and you have -- these are top and bottom rockers and a set of hatch and all of these convicho and do-dads, this mink fur is all added on. this was the classic outlaw look back then for the street gangs. >> this is handmade. he made this himself. there are stitches here with cow hide that he made, the patches.

you sew them on yourself. >> yeah. >> this all began with that movie "easy rider." a lot of people won't admit it, but it's the truth. people saw that, that gave you the sense of outlaw. hmm. >> most of the guys here are dressed like warriors. >> warriors. >> no, i'm not. >> i hear you talking about your warlords and your war council. >> the establishment. >> there it is. >> around the bronx now at the very moment is the police. yes, this is a warrior thing. yes, it is. and we're here to defend our brothers and sisters against people like them. they're very racist, man. people in need to communicate. if you're going to fight, we're going to fight back. >> when the bronx was burning, gangs were rumbling.

i mean, rumbling hard. one of the guys from the ghetto brothers who was a peacemaker named black benji, he went out there to make peace, and another club a member of another club jumped out and said "peace my ass" and hit him with a bat and then they just continued to hit him until they killed him. >> cornell benjamin also known in the streets as black benji was ambassador for the ghetto brothers. he was beaten to death when he tried to intervene between two other gangs. instead of retaliating, the ghetto brothers convened a peace meeting of all the gangs in the south bronx at the boys' club on ho avenue. >> even when we had colors we were a gang, we never looked for trouble, man. i could understand if they beat up benji but killing him is another thing. you took one of our brother's lives, man. the thing is we're not a gang anymore. >> peace! >> right on. >> they made a truce, and the truce worked for a while. so the whole mentality changed

along with the atmosphere. instead of the wars that we used to have, you know, club to club, it was, i battle you. people would battle with their mouths right there on the spot. you have to spit. ♪ >> all these crews, the fly style of like putting the name of their crew on their sweatshirt now. you know, it wasn't on the lee jacket, but now they were more refined. they were clean. some of the beefs were settled on the dance floor, in the train yards, on the microphones, on the turn tables.

>> to hear the scratching, to hear the music and music that we had never heard of. a music that describes us, describes our struggles. you couldn't help but have to conform, for lack of a word, to the trend that was coming. >> which was? >> rap.

i was in awe. i lost my mind the first time i

went to the -- hear these rappers and to hear these battles between busy b and coup cumod. up to that point, you had to use your imagination, whoever got to tape, telling you how it was. >> i remember you had them just back there jamming. to me, just party at the park. we didn't really know hip-hop was getting that big, you know. even back then it was all about fashion. even the outfits that mellie mel would wear, it was outrageous at that time, but it was like, oh, he's a superstar, he's a rapper. that's what they do. so he had a pass to wear all those crazy jackets and cowboy boots. ♪ >> back in the day, if you find any old cold crush flyers, you receded those cats used to dress up. they got suited for a lot of

their events. i mean, armani suits, you know. mink coats dripping to the floor. however, though, because of hip-hop being a new form of music and something that the youth cater to, basically everybody that was accustomed to wearing suits on stage just started dumbing it down to just keeping it just straight b-boy. the majority of hip-hop artists really just dressed b-boy style where you got on the lee's and you got on the pumas. and a bvd tank top, you know, with your gazelles. it was all part of the hip-hop fashion. >> hip-hop fashion was kind of derived through the music and kind of, we're not going to follow the rules mentality both in rap music and in fashion.

♪ say ho say ho ho say ho ho ho ♪ ♪ now scream >> i remember in terms of making a statement and just really influencing me, seeing run dmc on stage. ♪ got a big long caddie written on the side dressed to kill ♪ with their hats, their leather pants, and bottom line you were always cutting school dressed for success meant something else. here they were breaking all the rules and winning. i just remember that changing my life in the sense that everything i've been taught was a farce for me from that point. >> when we went on stage, it was what all the youth wear, what all our fans wear. so dressing this way lets them

know, oh, he just like me. >> being in new york with so many people walking past each other on the street every day, you get a chance to -- it's like a runway, you know what i mean? all the streets were like runways for different clothing brands. >> there was always all sorts of different flavors. there wasn't one definitive sort of style. >> a guy from brooklyn would have on clocks, shark skins, gazelle glasses with no lenses in it. that was a brooklyn cat. he didn't have to say anything. you knew he was from brooklyn. a guy from harlem would have on let's say a velour sweat suit and whatever brand the sweat suit was from, he would have the sneaker to match. same with the bronx. the bronx was a mix of harlem and brooklyn together.

queens had their own flow, too. >> i used to go to apollo, amateur night at the apollo. you could be in that venue and know that person's from harlem, that person's from queens, you know. you would just know by the way they were dressed. >> we were fresh. we were zip chilling fresh dipped. no money, no money, no money in the pocket. might have had 50 cents between us. >> the insecurity of not having anything, it's the only time that you can showcase that you do. like if you going home, you got roaches and ten people living in an apartment, you know, the only way that you can kind of show that you have anything and feel some kind of a status is what you have on your body. what you have on your body is a reflection of how you're

economically doing. as a young man, if you got fresh, crispy gear, then you get money. if you dirty, you not getting money. everybody prefers to be clean. everybody prefers to have different variations of clothing. so it's just a status symbol based on insecurity. >> i think the colors in hip-hop came from graffiti. whatever cans of paint, what colors were available, those became the cool colors. you did your own thing. you know, you could paint your own design on the back of your jean jacket. jean jackets were the first canvas for hip-hop.

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right now we are standing on the iconic delancecy and or chand streets, a historic location that many of us sought back in the 1970s. there's a photographer way back then, i actually took some of my first photographs here on this block here. it's interpreted around the world as just being fly, being unique, being special, you know.

for many, they just see it as a strong style. what i see is pride and dignity in taking pride in the way they dress and carry themselves. i wanted the world to see something unlike they were seeing before. this is white people conditioned to be able to maintain a great degree of integrity, shown in the way they dress and having clean sneakers on, having fresh gear on that was color coordinated. that made them feel good and helped resonate and inspire people locally to want to dress that way. >> you couldn't get a discount anywhere except on the lower east side. >> this was like one big department side which stretched down seven, eight blocks. the one thing that they had that they could show off to the world was their clothing. so it was very important. they may not have the best apartment. they may not have had the best cars. but they had the best clothing.

and it was very important to them. because when they put that suit or that leather jacket on or their mink jacket on or whatever it was, they were king. >> for a lot of people who may grow up in the projects or whatever, they want to stand out, you know. so they wear loud colors. i think the colors in hip-hop came from graffiti. whatever cans of paint, what colors were available for painting, those became the cool colors. you did your own thing, you know. you could paint your own design on the back of your jean jacket, you know. jean jackets were the first canvas for hip-hop. >> what was really, really

popular was doing names on the side of your jeans, and that's what i was doing a lot of. people paid me to put their names on the side of their jeans. ♪ >> you know, i remember coming across a black beat magazine with ll cool j on the cover, and inside there was an article about his sweatshirt that he was wearing, which was like an airbrushed portrait of himself, as a b-boy. and it was painted by a guy named king fade from the shirt kings. >> this is the shirt here that gave the shirt kings notoriety. when ll cool j who is a major, major, major star, wore this

shirt in every photo shoot that you could imagine, it took what we were doing in south side jamaica queens all around the world. it made the world notice who we were. >> what shirt kings were about were drawing things that we saw, you know, in our community. we basically remixed them, turned them into a joke. this became our reality, you know. so we put mickey on crack. >> when times are bad, a lot of people tend to gravitate towards art. art takes your mind to another place. you know, shirt kings allowed me to not become something else. >> shirt kings and dapper dan took care of what we were

thinking in our imaginations, they put it into reality. >> what i'm wearing here, this style stuff dapper dan was putting together on your shoe. dapper dan was putting together on your baseball cap. you know, the lv was on your baseball cap, on your pouch that hung from your neck. you know, dapper dan would use that where louis vuitton wouldn't. people who could afford it were going to dap instead of louis, you mow what i'm say something you may walk into louis vuitton and he looked down at you. especially in 1980. you went to dap, you feel at home. he's going to cater to your needs and take care of you. >> i believe urban luxury fashion started with dapper dan, and people wanting to aspire to wear these luxury brands, they were unattainable at the time. he figured out a way to make it attainable. what dan did is basically do what we did with music, you know. we sampled songs, looped them,

and made it our own. he figured out a way to do it in clothing. >> let me tell you a story. 30 years ago this whole block was full of bentleys, rolls-royces, cars you never even heard of. to come see this man because he was the first one taking to sign up clothes, gucci, louis vuitton and making suits and stuff out of it. took the leather and did it, made pants. i never bought a pair. i couldn't afford no pants. this was the first man that did this. >> the only way for us to make it in this business, which i realized early on, was, when you got raw goods, that raw goods, if i have a roll of fabric, that fabric is anything i want it to be. anything that a designer didn't have, i would embellish it for them, you know. i blackenized it, you know. i made it so that it would look good on us.

i took it where they would never take it. louis vuitton wasn't even making clothes like that at the time, you know. i didn't even realize the impact that it was having because i just wanted to serve my community. i just wanted to serve the black people. i would be satisfied just with the neighborhood i was in, you know what i mean? get me respect from them. >> back in the day, it was about high-end brand. if it wasn't the actual high-end brand, it was dapper dan. >> i got the whole upholstery inside my car done black and red gucci. >> i've kind of had make me a shirley with their extra deep pockets just in case i needed to have guns in them. you could do those kind of things. it didn't cost two grand. i thought i was the man. >> for the rappers i would have

it down here. all they had to do is pull -- rappers come through, all they do is pull the gate up and rolling. my policy was, run to the gate! eric b., rock kim, biz marquee, salt and peppa, guy, teddy. teddy, i ain't mad at you. i still got a check for $700 that bounced. >> what put the nail in the coffin was first they raided me. raided me broke. part two was crank out anything i do on your mtv, and you know your mtv gave verse to the rap. that was their cover. >> he should have came out with a dapper dan brand. >> he definitely could have. i think he would be in business. >> dapper dan was tom ford before tom ford. he should have been hired instead of shut down.

he really should have been hired as a designer for one of those elite clothes brands back then because he had the foresight to do back then what they just started doing maybe ten years, five years after him. >> the most important thing with sneakers, you know, because if you had some white sneakers you were just -- it was just a difficult time. >> there was one question. you never wanted to hear when somebody you didn't know rolled up on you. and that was, what's your size? i've been on my feet all day. dr. scholl's massaging gel insoles have a unique gel wave design for outrageous comfort that helps you feel more energized. dr. scholl's. feel the energy! only glucerna has carbsteady, diabetes, steady is exciting. clinically proven to help minimize blood sugar spikes.

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♪ ♪ the most important thing was sneakers, you know, because if

you had some white sneakers it was just a difficult time. >> a lot of stuff was only built off your shoes. that's what was important. you built your outfit off your shoe game. >> this is what i like to call sneaker heaven. i could wear a brand-new pair for 7 1/2 years. that's a fact. when i was a kid, i asked my mother for a pair of sneakers one day. she bought me a sneaker called the mark 5. nobody alive know whaz ths what shoe is. it was a mark 5. i thought i was the hottest guy in the world because my name was on the shoe. my name is mark. i went back to the block, and they laughed me off the block because it was like a $10 shoe or one of them crazy shoes. and i got destroyed. >> bh it comes to getting fresh, hip-hop, getting fresh starts with feet first. >> i remember i went in a cab to school. you had to wear chute shoes eve. me and my friend would fake a sprained ankle. he showing we had the newest

jordan. >> shoes you could get killed for, too. >> there was one question you never wanted to hear when somebody you didn't know rolled up on you, and that was "what's your size." >> they would go like this, yo, what size you wear? and if you would lie, say your size, why? yeah, your eyes. why you want to know? if you would lie, if you was a chump and a sucker, you probably be quiet and probably get punched in the face and get fixed. >> they would thank you for the shoes and it wasn't a pretty sight. >> i did get robbed one time. >> you did. >> i was just leaving the -- man. these guys got the drop on me. i don't know what i was thinking going up to the bronx by myself. >> you were a kid up there in

the bronx. you don't see in manhattan, let's go get those. so we off to jew man. >> after my mother gave me my allowance, begged my grandfather for an extra 20 cash so i could get the new shoe. it was always that for me. always. you always wanted to be seen and you always wanted everybody to know that you got that what we call swag now. you got that flavor back then. you're fresh. you're the one. >> it was a competition just like everything else in the hood. the way the whole fat laces started was we used to take lace that's came with the shoe like converse, stretch them, starch them with starch, and iron them. it was a ritual. it took like a half hour, right? to get it just right. then the way you laced them in your shoes was a whole different sort of science ush, you know. the manufacturers when they lace their laces they go the other way, under and up. we? we go up and under.

that's a very clear way to tell who's hip in terms of like street flavor on the hip-hop tip. >> i've been on the color of "village voice," five-page article based on sneakers. i would say this shoe collection is worth over $500,000. ♪ here we go yo >> in the late '80s growing up in new york, you know, kids were into fashion and hip-hop obviously influenced everything that we did. but, you know, at that point it basically meant getting different designer labels like polo or something like that and wearing it in a particular way. >> you wasn't just a regular black kid rocking polos. we saw those things like new

balance, members only, if it wasn't a -- in the hood rocking that, it's because they saw them rocking it. then made it his own style and brought it in the hood. then other folks emulated that. for us, that's kind of like a not true thing. >> i remember at the taste of chicago when i first saw reg and i, he had like the all-over print polo with the camo pants with the wallies, the fedora, and like a lazarus chain, gold chain, gold fronts. i was still like sewing izods to my shirt. that moment just moved me so much. i had to get my fresh up to a whole other level. i realized at that point i wasn't in a suburb in high school anymore. >> when i was in school, i went to brown and i had a side pan, the first thing i would do is go to -- you know. i was -- take my money and go to

louis vuitton or gucci. urban young people are always attracted to or addicted to fashion because it is the expression of aspiration, because you grow up in a world where fashion is so important. and a lot of people who are in hip-hop have aspirations and aspiration is, can you go into that store and buy that brand? >> when you think of versace, ralph lauren, it seems like it's far away, it's a dream. somewhere where you would like to go. and those people could care less about you, you know. but it seems like, if i can grab that and wear that, like i'm living a fantasy. >> tommy hilfiger would show up in the hood and open up a trunk with, lie, clothes and tantamount to it was like -- it was like the drug dealer giving you a free hit. then you're like, i want more.

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two separate boosting crews or getting fly crews that came together and created a big brotherhood. you know, that influenced the world of fashion and hip-hop abro abroad. >> a booster is somebody who goes to any store but in this case expensive stores and steals. and then, you know, it might be a $600 jean and you can buy it for $100 from him. >> boosting is anybody who shoplifts. >> you were robbing and stealing and all that, even each other. there were a lot of people where, you know, rob your whole house, man. everything you had. and just the polo, not taking anything else. >> i remember taking the train. we take the train to gold rush

on 34th street. as soon as the train doors opened, everybody rushing into the store, racing to get the stuff. people were running into the streets carrying all these clothes, some clothes getting dropped. then you see superheroes coming out of nowhere trying to help, you know, protect the store. then you get back to the train station and on to the tracks and on to the next stop to get away. >> i knew about it, but i didn't know to what extent. then i met thirst continue howell iii. he came out with all this stuff. it was all polo. i was like, this is crazy. i didn't even know polo made this. where did you get this? >> it was an evolution of the fashion. it transcended from the likes of the izods. we were attracted to those things before we were touching the polo. and the thing with the polo is, they didn't sell it in no ghettos or your local stores in your neighborhood. you had to go to the high-end stores on fifth avenue and all that. so if you went and got some of

that stuff and you came back in the hood, you was like, you rich. we living in the projects, man. i didn't even have furniture in my house, but i had polo everywhere, you know? >> what you see is a classic case of lo life syndrome. this is right here the big low symb symbol, the big polo ralph lauren you know what i'm saying? another symbol. >> thank you, ralph. thank you for that polo sweatshirt with the creams, chenille letters across the front that i wore in college. and everybody there, thank you for allowing me to -- on so many people. thank you, ralph. >> we were like free promotions for him. >> tommy hilfigers would show up in the hood and open up the

trunk with clothes tantamount to it was like the drug dealer giving you a free hit. then you're like, i want more. so you're looking for it and you're buying it, you know. and he was smart. he knew what he was doing. they knew exactly what they were doing. you know, they didn't pay grand poobah. they didn't offer official endorsement deals to any of these artists. but tommy hilfiger, ralph lauren, they made a lot of money off these guys. >> being a promotion walking around in the clubs, we were influencing the rappers in the golden era. them seeing us in the clubs, 50 guys wearing the same shirt. the rappers were copying it and doing it in their videos, and then that was going around the world, they were influencing the world through that. >> stores were afraid of this culture. they really were. they really didn't want this

customer in their store, you know. these stores were highly traded white suburban and very traditional.

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♪ with the explosion of hip-hop music in the 1990s, hip-hop starts moving into becoming mainstream, which means television through music videos, through music television. we had ralph mcdaniels well before mtv documenting our stories, bringing them into our homes every day after school at 3:30. that's what we watched, and that's where we started seeing it. then we had concerts. we had television shows like "the fresh prince of bel air" and "in living color" that now started showing the looks that were not just designer brands,

that we were used to seeing on lifestyles of the rich and famous. now we're seeing brands that we can relate to. so there was a number of things that kind of catapulted this look to become mainstream. >> the music came and put a light on us. where we been dressing in the hood, but without hip-hop there was no light looking in the hood to see what you got on. you know what i'm saying? nobody was, like, yo, what these folks in the hood, nobody cared about that. they only care birthday thd abo it burst the street culture. >> the first time we started seeing that urban really had some dollars behind it was through cross colors. here was a brand that was actually started in california by a black fashion executive who actually came out of the surf

business who realized that there was something going on. because he would come to new york all the time and go on the subway and visit spike lee's store in brooklyn. he was seeing how young men were wearing their clothes. >> i was doing business with a store called merry-go-round enterprises. i started talking to the buyers there about who their customers were, who they sold to. it was mainly what the stores referred to as an urban customer. but, for me, it was the african-american customer. i rode the subways in new york because at the time i felt rap music was coming from new york, and that was a definite lifestyle culture at that time. they were wearing like jeans that were four or five sizes too big. i go, oh, that's interesting. they're using a belt to hold

them on so i thought, well, i could do something like that where it was a baggy silhouette. however, the waist was a waist that would fit that person's body. my medium was a large. my 32 was a 36 silhouette, with a 32 waist for a bottom. no one is really saying, you know, i'm designing for this customer, i'm designing for this market, i'm designing for streetwear. i design from the ghetto for the ghetto for the street. and those are all the thoughts going through my head. ♪ now this is a story all about how my life got flipped ♪ ♪ turned upside down >> i hired a marketing guy at the time by the name of david stinen. i said, hey, why don't you call up the fresh prince of bel air and, you know, see if they're interested in wearing our

clothes? i'll never forget he came back and said, carl, you won't believe what's happening! they love your stuff. they were looking for something like this but didn't know it exists. they love it. they want more. two or three nights later, there he is on "the fresh prince of bel air" wearing our clothing. >> have a holly jolly christmas! you got a problem with my lights? why don't you come tell me that to my face, then? you can do whatever you want to do. it's your world, squirrel. i'm just trying to get a nut! >> and that was the beginning of it. and the next thing "in living color" called us. oh, we saw your stuff. then later whey was told, well, you changed the whole specst

young man's market. i think the industry began to change their specs where everybody else started doing larger sizes. '92 -- really it was '90 when the baggy jeans started but in '92 it impacted. everybody's pants were big. >> i was probably about a freshman in college or so when it was at its peak. and this concept that there was a clothing brand that united young people in thought as well as races was very intariqing for me. the idea of offering clothes that made you proud of your ethnicity. here was a time where women were really wearing those same oversized clothes just as much as the men were, and i actually think of tlc before i think of anyone else wearing cross colours and being an influence in wearing a men's brand. no one really catered to the

women when it came to trying to dress us. it was a male game. i remember the first time i saw tlc wearing cross colours. i was like, oh, hmm, got my attention. let me see. made me want to bring out more of the woman in me. they really created a spark, like, wait a minute, i want to shine, too. i need some bright colors. >> it became clothing for everyone. it was celebrities loved it because we embraced celebrities. we embraced all the music artists. and they never was there any company that ever reached out to artists and said, wear my clothing. i think we were probably the first ones to do it. so we were definitely on to something. >> cross colours within four years went from a zero to $100 million. so the success of cross colours then burst a series of other entrepreneurs that decided, we want to create our own brands, too. so out of cross colours came this phenomenal group of

individuals from -- tony shellman who ended up going on to launch several brands. april walker, and i can go on and on and on. >> we wanted to get into the denim business, and we did our research and found out that guess and jer bow was manufacturing in california. a friend of mine found a manufacturer manufacturing guess. he flew me out here. we didn't really know it that well. bunch of people were walking away. one guy says, you want me to -- you pay me more money? he spoke english. just kind of was our link to everyone. a guy named juan, he put us up on the denim spot, showed us where to get the fabric from. we just started moving and shaking. we brought it to california.

we had a store on crenshaw boulevard. some entrepreneurs decided to come into our store and rob our store at gun point, took everything we had. at that point, we had a choice to either stay out here or go back to new york. one day we went to the palladium and of course it was the middle of a fashion show and i saw carl jones. i asked him, you know, carl, how do i get my stuff in department stores? i wrant to get my brand out there. he's like, if you come to my office tomorrow, i'll be more than happy to talk to you. i came to his office. within the first 15 minutes he was like, i heard about your stuff. if you need some help, i'd be willing to help you out. two weeks later we had a deal, and he invited me to become partners with him in the business. >> he was very selective in who he gave his clothes to. he gave them to the biggy malls, tupaks, more sophisticated guys. cross colours was tlc, snoop dogg and things of that nature. we sort of made sure they had a

different vision and branding was slightly different how we market the brand. >> that was the coolest thing that you could be involved in, like who was in the next karl kani ad. and it just made the dream accessible. it made me feel like, you know, if he can do it, i can do it. he had a sophisticated level. he understood clothing. he understood tailoring. he understood quality . he wanted the best. >> there's a lot of obstacles for us. we were young. i was 23 years old. i didn't make a lot of money back then, you know. we just kind of learning the ropes a little bit. stores were afraid of this culture. they really were. they really didn't want this customer in their store. these stores were highly traded white suburban and very traditional.

>> for a long time, department stores were fighting us. by the time we were called urban designers, they couldn't break into department stores. it was tommy hilfiger, polo, all the big names. the music industry is making those names big and bigger by constantly talking about them, but when we get our own brands we're not being let on the floor to even compete with them. >> it was very difficult when i was running karl kani even for department stores to even look at our product because they didn't know -- most department stores put a name to a product. at that time, it was men's sports wear and men's traditional and men's suits. that was pretty much it. so when we came out with karl kani clothes they didn't know how to identify it. so what they did, whoever wore the clothes, 2 short or snoop dogg or anyone on the west

coast, they considered it gang wear. then they toned it down and called it street wear. then it became urban. so imagine this buyer who's never been to the streets in their life all of a sudden carrying a line that's considered gang wear. then you've got to associate what type of consumer, demographic is walking in that store. >> you know, retailers would tell me, your sweatshirt is the same as fila's sweatsuit. why should i pay yours? i don't know if it was race as much as not understanding what we were doing in being -- at that time, hip-hop period, the vibe was this is bad. it's not going to last, from music to fashion. >> i'd have black and white buyers say the kind of same thing. they're like, you know, black people won't buy that or white people won't buy that. that's what they would say. people perceived me as like a wigger. i would get that a lot.

so it didn't surprise me when the buy side had the same kind of apprehension, when the buy side of building my business was kind of like, hmm, little cynical. hmm. >> he really didn't want the consumer in the store but they had to because the demand was there. carl jones and karl kani created the demand that you had to carry my product. we were the first brand to have our own shops in macy's next to ralph lauren and polo and tommy hilfiger and nautica. stores realized what the income and outcome of this could have been and was. they took heed to it and put it in -- and bought a lot of it. >> 1996, this was the start of the business making the transition from being a mom and pop specialty store business to being a department store business.

♪ the world is news ♪ the world is yours ♪ this world is mine ♪ the world is yours ♪ the world is yours >> it was crazy times. it was on fire. hip-hop was growing fast. it was a movement going on, fighting power, hip-hop was just exploding in every way in any way. so as far as the apparel was concerned, it was kind of like there was no main focus. it was just whoever had an apparel company basically was part of the movement and they got the win. it was crazy. it was crazy to be a part of it. >> the only time he stopped typing when i asked him, pop, so, like, how much would you charge me to do an ad? he stopped. he said, i ain't going to charge you. you're black. charge my people for nothing. do you like the passaaadd?

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yeah, video music box, friday night street party, uncle ralph in the place. i'm out here in las vegas at the magic convention, the clothing convention. >> magic is where all the clothing stores and companies and all that come and they all come to buy something and then put in a store near you, you know what i'm saying? >> we ent to this called a magic

show in las vegas. we didn't have enough money to exhibit in the trade show, even walk into the show. we wrote $300,000 worth of orders outs of this little hotel room five miles from the trade show. we come back, we don't have money. we get turned down by 27 bankses. we go into my house, sell the furniture we can. the rest of it we cannot sell, we burn in oil drums it takes two weeks because we wanted to get the furniture out of there. and we move industrial sewing machines in there and hire a staff. we slept in sleeping bags next to the machines and for a year we would just crank fubu out of the house. and that started to populate the stores and stores started to sell polos and sweatshirts in august in texas. and then people started to realize who we were. >> fubu was able to do what cross colours didn't in terms of volume. so while its predecessor at its max, its peak, did 100 million and that was in 1990, less than

seven years later, you're talking about a brand that proved itself at $350 million. it went beyond just the local kids in the hood. >> you know, the leaders in that sort of really sort of naturally used the media and used tv properly was fubu. although videos were being dominated by karl kani, fubu was clever enough to put a hat on ll in a gap commercial, changed everything. it just changed everything. >> ll was always somebody who made his own rules and because he felt that the gap at the time didn't really respect the culture or him, he put fubu in the gab commercial. >> once you hear the gap calling you can't resist it jeans popping in every mall in town. ready to go for us on the low. >> the gap ended up spending $30 million on that commercial and it became basically a fubu

commercial. >> pac used to wear my clothes before i even met him. pac was all over the place. az again set up a meeting. we go out to pak's room. the whole time we're in in, he didn't look me in the face. he was typing a xlipt to a movie. as he's typing the xrip to the movie, he's having a very intelligent conversation with me about black culture, hip-hop, things like that. the only time he stopped typing is when i asked him, i said, pac, so, like, how much would you charge me to do an ad? he stopped. man, i ain't going to charge you. you black. don't charge my people for nothing. and the man kept his word. two weeks later we was in new york. we did the photo shoot. it was all love. and ever since then we became tight. and tupak was one big reason why

helped my brand become global. they worshipped him like a god overseas in europe. >> i've seen the influence of hip-hop fashion all over the world, japan, places in europe, all over europe. it's how they relate to the music. they don't just listen to it. they embody it. ♪ >> when you don't understand english, what makes you go to buy an album? the look, the fashion, transmits something you can't explain. i remember the pictures with the black suits and leather, the glasses. >> when i was back in italy like

15 years ago, 20 years ago, i was one of the early kids in italy that was already listening to hip-hop music, rap music. i was getting clothes and getting music from my friends that were like, you have to go to new york and buy that. it already was not yet popular in europe. and i always loved it because there again, it's about freedom. it's about supporting the roots of their culture. >> the international markets the hip-hop culture is there, demographic consumers there, the clothes is there. >> you cannot talk about hip-hop only in the u.s. anymore. hip-hop is not from the u.s. anymore. it's come from hong kong, from paris, from everywhere. there's only one world anymore. one world for the music, one world for the fashion. everybody got the same

[ expletive ] at the same time everyone in the world. it's business. we not talking about style. we not talking about fashion. we done talking about music. we talking about marketing on time. if you're in the right timing with the right marketing, you're going to do billions. that's it.

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russell simmons. >> okay, sure. >> we currently represent maybe 40 artists. they've all had some success, some more than others. i think people as they hear it more they understand it more, appreciate it more. >> a person must be given a great deal of credit is the man who was married to the fabulous model kimora lee simmons, russell simmons. what russell simmons and kimora lee simmons did as a couple was extraordinary, not only for the hip-hop culture but for the fashion culture. for the urban fashion culture. what they created with their brand, the phat farm product was the main thing. >> the music culture smartened up when a guy named russell simmons starts phat farm. then people around him are like,

man, he made off with that? then you have all of these things that's a domino effect, knowing what our culture want and how much money is made. >> when mainstream american culture discovered hip-hop, they began trying to sort of, you know, sell bits and pieces of it in any way they could. and this is when you got all of these, you know, fashion labels associated with rappers. >> at rock wear, i would try to show a lifestyle that people would buy into. that's what i was ultimately trying to do. you know what i'm saying? i don't want it to be looked at as we're good for urban or black clothing. i wanted to compete with everyone else in the world. >> rock awear was around well before sean jean but it wasn't until we saw the numbers of shawn giuliajohn that rock awar

able to benefit from that. by the time he came on the scene, urban brands were starting to become a bit saturated in the fashion market. achd i think sean jean really injected the industry with a new pulse. >> i think for sean john, you know, my whole muse and motivation was what i grew up seeing in the streets, what i grew up seeing going into what i was seeing in my communities and taking it and combining it also to what i was seeing on the runways from all over the world. it was the embodiment of swagger, you know what i'm saying? >> when sean first started doing fashion and having fashion shows, they were some of the most extraordinary moments during fashion week. >> everybody always asks me why i started designing clothes. see, i basically just wanted to

look good, you know? to be perfectly honest, i always just like looking in the [ expletive ] mirror, looking at myself and saying, boy, damn, you look good. >> with sean john i didn't want to just make it a fashion brand. i wanted to make it a lifestyle. i wanted to make sure that we were able to go from the block to the boardroom, that if you had a job interview you were able to represent yourself the right way. if you were going to church, you were able to represent yourself the right way. fresh from head to toe, you know. we didn't take into prisoners. if ralph was doing it, gucci was doing it, sean john was able to did it and we wanted to do it just as good as them or even better. >> at that time, we were up against brands like mecca and phat farm and rock awear. we were more sophisticated, again, the quality was better. it was toned down as far as the colorations. the fit was different. and the price was a little more

higher. >> he said, hey, guess what? i'm going to do urban fashion, but i'm not going to do urban fashion. i'm going to do high fashion in the urban space. >> at its heart, sean john was about aspiration so he did this high/low thing at such a big level and turned it into this global brand. he also waon awards for men's wear. i remember being at the company and realizing how big it was, understanding that he was the first african-american to win that award. and you're -- you know, he was a hip-hop artist crossing over, winning the most prestigious fashion award for the year. >> winning that award was bigger than sean john. it was bigger than me. you know, when we won that award, as i said, we won that award. we all won it together. >> he was able to show that a music brand can make major

volume sales. now we're starting to see three digit sales from a music-inspired line that just kind of opened the floodgates. all of a sudden it became a free-for-all. and there wasn't a celebrity urban or not that didn't get in the business. >> if i was to buy my son a coat that cost $600, i'm going to send him to school with a bullet-proof vest.

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well, basically, the start of wu wear, my expectation of it was nothing other than really self-expression and stylization, a stylization that was, you know, there to accompany our music. but i also wanted wu-tang to be kind of like its own polo or tommy hilfigehilfiger. >> he's like, i'm not going to keep wearing everybody else's stuff when i can have my own line. that makes sense. but then if you don't pull together the right team, that line is not going to last. and you know what, you might get real estate in that store for 6

to 18 months but you're just taking away another designer's real estate that's really real about it and can give some really good product. >> you weren't going to wear shady. just were not. i mean, there's nothing that made you think that shady was into fashion. you know, as a consumer, you sort of just knew it was a money play. >> he put a million dollars behind all of these different brands, and because they had a hot song. you're as hot as your music. when you're a musician coming out with a clothing brand. you're never really serious about this. they're putting out t-shirts, this. you're as good as your brand, your music. if your music starts going south, so does the clothing. >> the fashion industry is fickle. it goes up and down just like the economy. what happened? a number of factors.

you had an oversaturation of brands. you had brands moving too fast into doing the department store business. >> when all the urban brands start to hit, the same stores that used to buy 90% of our collection started ordering 40% or 30% of our collection because now the floor space competition for newer brands. >> if you're a designer and you really want to stay true to who you are, but yet you have a partner who has another agenda, you're eventually going to clash. >> we had a partner. our partner probably had never seen it go so fast and so big so he wanted to drive at the time all the time. and we were just butting heads constantly. >> peopler were offering me deals and i was turning them down because i'm like, at 3%, 4% of my company? you mean, you're going to give me 4% of mine?

>> when somebody is paying for your dream, it's not your dream anymore. it's their dream. i didn't like the way it was made. and then i didn't really like what the perspective was, what was being catered to. i didn't like the moguls all day. >> you can't just say a hip-hop king is going to become the next louis vuitton. louis vuitton was there 130 years ago, 100-odd year ago. >> ralph lauren polo doesn't disappear when a particular style of clothing is no longer popular. so you're talking about, you know, the difference between companies that were able to establish themselves in a society when african-americans were discriminated against economically in businesses. in order to have -- levi's been around for how long? forever. well, it would have been impossible to have had an

african-american label making jeans as far back as levi's in american society. unfortunately, they've not had the staying power. >> thank you all. >> depending on the flavor of the day, the mood of the month, you know, whatever we're into, we wear it. we're proud to wear it. but we put it in a different class of distinction than other designs. and i think that has a lot to do with a lot of deeper discussions about self-esteem, distinctions in class, in race. brands are identifiers as to who wre from head to toe. and it's always like the grass is greener on the other side. >> what do you know about this pop clothes? >> it's expensive clothes.

i don't associate wearing it because i feel like i might get attacked for what i have. >> this coat right here? people rob people for these coats. they expensive. the youth around here, like in harlem or the bronx, brooklyn, a lot of like the main tough areas, this is like a big fashion, these coats are. a lot of people get robbed for them, get killed for them. >> some kid just got shot. >> good evening, i'm joe torres. >> just a short time ago, police charged 16-year-old cory daunten with attempted murder for opening fire on the ice rink in bryant park. >> sources say it started with a fight over a coat and ended with two people shot including a 14-year-old boy whose family fears he may never walk again. >> if you know you're seeing it, it's all over the news, if i was to buy my son a coat that cost $600, i'm going to send him to school with a bulletproof vest.

>> back in the days, you got beat up. nowadays everybody -- kids get shot for jackets. you hear about kids getting shot for jordans. it's crazy. it's disturbing. actually really, really disturbing. >> the air jordan shoe frenzy started friday morning, people waiting in line to get their hands on the shoes. >> in georgia, four people arrested as they tried to get a pair of shoes. >> cops spraying everybody. >> espinoza just twent $180 for the air jordans now all he has to show for the shoes are cuts and bruises. >> i got an abundance of shoes. when i see a kid get robbed for a pair of joshd p, shot, sometimes i sit back and look and say, damn.

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by the time we hit the 2000s, it was kind of like, wow, you know, you've got to watch the trends because of all the

traffic and all the activity that was happening online. >> before what our influences were were confined to what was at our reach, and now with the expansion and the power of the internet, i have access to every fashion, look, brand across the world. so i can be whoever i want to be. >> we're in a space where they're changing so many ideas that i think that getting back into individual looks. >> it's no longer, you know, it's either urban or it's punk or this or that, you know. it's not preppy. all that stuff to me doesn't mean anything now. >> and hip-hop fashion right now people are taking way more

risks. they feel empowered with a lot more freedom. it's almost like the more risk you take, the more respect that you get. >> everybody wanted to be recognized, and everybody want to be noticed. i think we're really changed fashion for real for real to where a lot of things were okay was that the world embracing homosexuality. it's given people that would never take risk in style and fashion, giving them the green light now. >> people were scared to just express themselves out of a fear of being called a name or being considered to be uncool in some way or not accepted or being bashed for a reason. certain people just assumed because i liked clothes i was gay. now we've learned to just accept each other's culture. >> a young guy is wearing stuff

out the box, off the block. just stuff from across the pond. he's wearing different type of bra brands. ♪ >> see everybody is wearing rocawear, sean john and phat farm that became standard to me. that was like normal to the point where it was minimal. i didn't want to do that. it got to things like prada and gucci and versace, john richmond, dulce and ga boa na, those brands. >> back when i was running -- the artists were talking about cross colours and karl kani. i think it's what was being preached to that consumer and that audience that loved their music. so now it's at i point where it's about versace and those

high-end brands. ♪ >> i think when everything comes back around, we're at a period where we're trying to buy gucci and that happened in the '80s for me, you know. i remember that period. and that's where we're at right now. >> most urban people really don't want things made by other >> most you are ban people really don't want thing made by other you are an people. they want things that they normally can't attain. they want to buy into a dream like everyone else do. >> as acalture, we aspire to buy the guccis and the louis and the eve st. laurent. because that represents to us success. >> while you are ban brands mr. for us, by us, we were never really loyal to the brands that

we followed. there was always this kind of cache. they represent the ultimate luxury. and the urban brands, they don't represent the same life-style that i aspire to have. >> wrung people want, they want power, they want status and they want wealth. hemes, you have a brand like, that you walk in the store and you see 75-year-old women, you any, buying scarves, and tea cups and sagds saddles for horses. it is a classic heritage house. that young person is buying into a heritage and legacy that -- that people aspire to.

a subconscious. a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit? can a business have a soul? can a business be...alive?

i was going to the library to do my homework. it was a little bit of a walk to get to the bus stop.

i had to wait in line to use the computer. took a lot of juggling to keep it all together. what's possible when you have high-speed internet at home? the library never closes. it makes it so much better to do homework when you're at home. internet essentials from comcast. helping to bridge the digital divide. class. the class conversation is bigger than the race conversation. the show of class is like i'm high class, and that's what those brands are, louis, gucci, all that.

and that's -- that's part of the reason why they are very skeptical about, you know, working with musicians or rappers, because we're considered to be lower class than designers. the organized industry of fashion in, you know america that i could speak to, it suffers from a bad identity. it wants to parrot what's happening in europe, right? it has a self-looeting atmosphere where we're never as good as american designers as the french or the, you know, the europeans. >> why are we waiting for exterm approval from that gatekeeper? like -- the luxury brands love us. i mean, all the ones that i talked to. they love us. they don't just walk up to me and talk to me about me. i think i spend more time in the folks who run fashion house and all the integral people there

talking about what they love about our industry and the people they love. >> lately a lot of people say oh, yeah, you have a lot of hip hop or rap, representative people that love you and supported you, always come to your show since many years. to me it's inspiring because, you noerveg these kids, they are really experimental. they call come out. and i like people that are experimental. i like people that they can risk. >> we're not like the drishl designers that have come to these doors. we have never studied at ralph or come out at homme at lane. we are like yeah our last jobs with sean, or puffy. we are not in this box. that's not what we're doing. it has nothing do with with shawn jonas. we worked there, things like that. we have always humbly tried not

say sean john sometimes. you don't want to be shamed but you lts want to be taken seriously. >> at the same time, we owe a lot for our time spent at shawn john. >> oh, for sure. >> my bran is 100% influenced by hip hop. mao me, as the next generation, because of the doors that russel, puff, and jay opened, it's on my responsibility that i have to do what i did in music. it's got to be ralph level. ♪ >> who is to say i give a definition of what fashion is or what category it should be in? if it's great work, it's great work. >> freedom, like, and your mentality sort of lib rates everything. because it is a mentality. so if you feel free, then you

are probably going to dress like you are free. if you dress like you are free, then you are go probably going to be different than everybody else. because it's untethered. it's not bound by popular or trendy opinion. and that's what freedom is, is it's to be yourself. >> fashion can about authentic experiences. so as long as it's authentic experiences and people that are brave enough to have a point of view, there will be fashion. that's what being an artist is. and that's what being a fashion icon is, having the ability to do something that someone else is doing. if you do something that someone else is doing you are not tresh, you are not fly, you are just copy. what is fresh is coming in and doing something you no one else does or does it first. >> to be fresh is, to me, is to be recognized, you know, be recognized for your individual style or be recognized for whatever it is that you are putting on display. and when you are fresh, and you are recognized, and people

notice, and, you know, even before they notice, when you know it, when you right here know it, you feel like super man.

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