Fashion Definitions — fashion history, brands and industry terms from Apparel Search
Street fashion is fashion considered to have emerged not from popular fashion designers or fashion studios, but from the consumers: the general public sets the trend, and people in the streets start the fashion trends. The trends are spotted by people walking around neighbourhoods, and in modern times also viewed on social media, news and blog posts. Mainstream fashion is often influenced by street fashion trends: as designers and retail store buyers recognise them, they incorporate the trend into their own collections, which expands its influence. Street fashion is generally associated with youth culture and is most often seen starting in major urban centres.
Street fashion is fashion that is considered to have emerged not from popular fashion designers or fashion studios, but from the consumers (the general public sets the trend). People in the streets start the fashion trends. The trends are spotted by people walking around the neighborhoods. In modern times, also viewed on social media, news, & blog posts.
Mainstream fashion often influenced by street fashion trends. As fashion designers & retail store buyers, begin to recognize street fashion trends, they often incorporate the trend into their own collections. This helps further expand the influence of the trend that may have started in the streets.
The media also begins to take notice when they see youthful trends. After they catch on to the strength of the trend, they publicize what they see which helps further growth of the trend.
Street fashion is generally associated with youth culture, and is most often seen starting in major urban centers. Magazines, Newspapers, & blogs commonly feature candid photographs of individuals wearing urban, stylish clothing.
Most major youth subcultures have had an associated street fashion.
A few examples include, hippie fashion, hip-hop fashion, punk fashion, gothic fashion, preppy fashion, etc.
Hippies (denim, bohemian style, long hair, flower power and psychedelic imagery, flared trousers)
Teddy Boys (drape jackets, drainpipe trousers, crepe shoes)
Punk fashion (ripped clothing, safety pins, bondage, provocative T-shirt slogans, Mohican hairstyle)
Skinheads (short-cropped hair, fitted jeans, Ben Sherman button-up shirts, Fred Perry polo shirts, Harrington jackets, Dr. Martens boots)
Gothic fashion (black clothing, heavy coats, poet shirts, big boots, makeup)
Preppy fashion (argyle sweaters, chinos, madras, Nantucket Reds, button down Oxford cloth shirts, and boat shoes).
Hip hop fashion (ultra-baggy pants, ECKO, Tribal Gear, South Pole, Avirex, FUBU, Sean Jean, NIKE)
Hipster or indie (glasses, jeans, beanies, sneakers, ties, suspenders, checked shirts, beards)
Trendies (androgynous big hair, bright neon colors, skinny jeans, printed hoodies, keffiyehs)
Urban (colorful apparel, large accent jewelry, skinny jeans, jackets, T-shirts)
Street Inspired Graffiti Art Fashion
Learn about streetwear.
Japanese street fashion often sustains multiple simultaneous highly diverse fashion movements at any given time.
Most fashion is described as flowing downward, from a designer's studio to a store to a customer. Street fashion is the documented reverse. A look is assembled by people who are not selling it, usually young people in a major urban centre, from garments already available: workwear, sportswear, second-hand clothing, military surplus and the ordinary stock of local shops, combined in a way no merchandiser planned. Because the look solves a real problem of identity for the group wearing it, signalling membership, taste and difference from the generation or the mainstream around it, it is worn consistently enough to become visible. Visibility is the turning point. Magazines, newspapers and blogs commonly feature candid photographs of individuals wearing urban, stylish clothing, and a photographed street look can travel further in a week than a local style once travelled in years.
Commercial adoption follows recognition. Designers and retail buyers are professional trend spotters, and a street trend arrives with its market research already done: real people are wearing it, in combinations that work, at prices they can pay. Incorporating the trend into a collection translates it into standard sizes, reliable fabrics and quantities, which spreads it to customers who would never have seen the neighbourhood it came from. Something is usually lost and something gained in that translation. The gain is availability and refinement. The loss is the specificity that made the look a badge, which is why originators often abandon a style at the moment it becomes widely available, and start the cycle again. Understanding street fashion means understanding that this cycle, origination, recognition, commercialisation and abandonment, is not a corruption of the process. It is the process.
The examples read as a compact history of post-war youth dress. Hippies wore denim, bohemian styling, long hair, flower power and psychedelic imagery and flared trousers. Teddy Boys wore drape jackets, drainpipe trousers and crepe shoes. Punk fashion used ripped clothing, safety pins, bondage elements, provocative T-shirt slogans and the Mohican hairstyle. Skinheads wore short-cropped hair, fitted jeans, Ben Sherman button-up shirts, Fred Perry polo shirts, Harrington jackets and Dr. Martens boots. Gothic fashion used black clothing, heavy coats, poet shirts, big boots and makeup. Preppy fashion ran in the opposite direction, to argyle sweaters, chinos, madras, Nantucket Reds, button-down Oxford cloth shirts and boat shoes, borrowing the dress of elite schools rather than rejecting respectability.
Hip hop fashion brought ultra-baggy pants and brands including Ecko, Tribal Gear, South Pole, Avirex, FUBU, Sean John and Nike. Hipster or indie style combined glasses, jeans, beanies, sneakers, ties, suspenders, checked shirts and beards. Trendies wore androgynous big hair, bright neon colours, skinny jeans, printed hoodies and keffiyehs. Urban style used colourful apparel, large accent jewellery, skinny jeans, jackets and T-shirts. Set side by side, the lists show that a subculture's fashion is a system, not a garment: footwear, hair, jewellery and silhouette all change together, and a single item taken alone, a Harrington jacket or a pair of Dr. Martens, reads as fashion rather than membership. Japanese street fashion is noted for sustaining multiple simultaneous, highly diverse fashion movements at any given time, which is the limiting case of the same principle: a city district can hold several complete style systems at once, each with its own shops, magazines and rules.
Two neighbouring terms should not be confused with this one. Streetwear is a commercial category of clothing, designed and sold by brands, drawing on skate, surf, hip hop and casual sportswear. Street fashion is the phenomenon that category feeds on: dress behaviour that begins with wearers. A brand can manufacture streetwear; it cannot manufacture street fashion, though it can spot it early and serve it honestly. Street fashion bloggers and street-inspired graffiti art belong to the recognition stage of the cycle, documenting and publicising what neighbourhoods produce. Their role grew as candid photography moved from magazines to blogs to social media, shortening the distance between a look appearing on a street and a buyer on another continent seeing it. The speed has changed, but the direction has not: the trend still begins with the person wearing it.
Street fashion emerges from consumers rather than from designers or studios. People in the streets start the trends, they are spotted by people walking around neighbourhoods, and today they are also viewed on social media, news and blog posts.
Designers and retail store buyers recognise a street fashion trend and incorporate it into their own collections, which expands its influence. The media also take notice when they see youthful trends, and publicising what they see helps the trend grow further.
Most major youth subcultures have had an associated street fashion, including hippie, hip hop, punk, gothic and preppy fashion, as well as Teddy Boys, skinheads, hipster or indie style, trendies and urban style.