Men's Phat Farm Fashion Brand

Since its inception in 1992, Phat Fashions began from a small New York City showroom and is now a multi-million dollar business. Phat Farm represents the most influential streetwear line of its day. Scale and standing come together: a 1992 inception, a small New York City showroom as the whole of the first premises, a multi-million dollar business as the outcome, and a superlative - the most influential streetwear line of its day - that this directory does not hand out often. A men's buyer is being told, in the record's first two sentences, that this is a history page as much as a shopping page.

The brand is credited for pioneering what would ultimately become the standard, sometimes stereotypical, hip-hop look. The brand also changed mainstream fashion by bringing into light the hip-hop style with a preppy twist into center stage. Two achievements, carefully separated: pioneering a look (the standard hip-hop look, sometimes stereotypical in its later copies), and changing mainstream fashion by moving that look - with a preppy twist - to center stage. The twist is the signature: without it, this would be one streetwear label among many; with it, the brand is credited with a merger of two American wardrobes.

Russell Simmons, From Def Jam to Phat Farm

Phat Farm is a national fashion line created by Russell Simmons. Prior to starting Phat Farm clothing company Russell was the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings. The founder's prior career is the mechanism behind the first achievement: the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings did not discover hip-hop style from outside it, and a national fashion line created by a man from inside the music carried the culture's own authority onto the rail. The sequence is plain - Def Jam first, Phat Farm after - and it stands as the brand's credential.

Phat Farm fashions, is touted as a symbol of men's contemporary American culture, mixing the urban aesthetics of the streets and the preppy culture of the Ivy League. The fashion line is marketed as "an upscale mix of sporty urban fashions" with the classic Ivy League preppy style. For example, argyle sweaters are paired with baggy jeans and crisp white sneakers. The example outfit is the whole thesis in three garments: the argyle sweater from the Ivy League wardrobe, the baggy jean from the street wardrobe, the crisp white sneaker under both - upscale, sporty, urban and preppy at once, exactly as the marketing line describes it.

Reading the Look Today

Read as a buying guide, the record teaches a pairing method rather than a product list. The Phat Farm method is contrast with discipline: one garment from the preppy register, one from the street register, finished clean - crisp white sneakers, in the example - so the mix reads deliberate rather than accidental. A single Phat Farm piece worn straight is only half the record; the brand's influential act was the combination, and the combination is what a men's buyer is really shopping for in this line.

Reading This Phat Farm Record

Phat Farm, under P in the Men's Fashion Brands directory: a national fashion line created by Russell Simmons, begun in 1992 from a small New York City showroom, grown into a multi-million dollar business, and credited with pioneering the standard hip-hop look and bringing hip-hop style with a preppy twist to center stage. The assessment, in four words - innovative brand well worth the review - sums up the record that supports it. The official Phat Farm route is linked in References below.

In brief: the 1992 inception, the Def Jam co-founding that preceded it, the Ivy League-and-streets mixture, and the argyle-sweater, baggy-jeans and white-sneaker example that defines the twist.

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