What influences your personal style?
Gucci, along with many other designer companies were sought after int he late 80’s New York Hip Hop style
Fashion and style have been an important part of Hip-Hop since the very birth of the culture. As the years have changed, so has the style of Hip Hop, in addition to the fashion industry in general. Back in the 80’s, the Hip-Hop fashion runways used to be the streets of New York. If you were from Harlem in
the 80’s you might wear a Kangol hat with a Puma sweatsuit, and matching puma sneakers on. If you were from Queens in the 80’s you might be looking like
Run DMC, with the Adidas track suit, and the Adidas sneakers with the fat laces and a gold rope if you could get your hands on one.
People then wanted to wear the high end brands. They wanted the Gucci, the Louis Vuitton, the Ralph Lauren. Since then, culture has grown so much that streetwear is effecting the high fashion culture, the skateboarding culture is effecting the high fashion culture, and high fashion is influencing streetwear and the skate culture as well.
These days, it’s all about personal style. It’s about personal expression. To dive
LL Cool J, typical 80’s style with the Kangol hat and sweatsuit
deeper into what goes into personal style, I decided to meet up with David Oimon, a style enthusiast from Los Angeles. I followed him through Santa Barbara as we went to his favorite store, Wolf’s Head and talked fashion and personal style.
David’s personal style consist of many different cultures that blend together to create the look he likes. One of his inspirations is the Léon from the 90’s movie Léon: The Professional.
“The way Leon looks, with the way he wears the beanie, then the Henley thermal with suspenders, the trench coat he has on over everything, and then his black boots too. That look is really clean.” – David
Léon: The Professional
We also talked about the brands that influences David’s style including:
Tokyo based company Wacko Maria, embroidered jacket
Palace Skateboards, a higher end skateboarding brand influential within the Hip Hop culture.
Supreme, another higher end skateboarding brand influential within the Hip Hop culture.
Born & Raised, a popular local Los Angeles brand David used to intern for.
Wacko Maria, a heritage/rocker/blue collar look from Japan.
One key contributor to David’s style is the shop Wolf’s Head in Santa Barbara. Wolf’s Head is a men’s clothing store dedicated to quality clothing and simple style. The vibe of the store is a blue collar americana barbershop stylistically met with tasteful Hip Hop influences.
“Style is creative, the closet is a beautiful place. You can express how you are feeling that day by what you got on.” – Alex, Wolf’s Head
Wolf’s Head clothing store
As we explored more of Wolf’s Head, we came across Red Wing shoes, Denim jeans, and even a section within the shop to get your hair cut for $30.00.
After looking for a while, David picked out a black Born and Raised tee shirt to buy, and wore it out of the store. Later on, David shared how clothing and
style is an art form.
“It’s an outward expression of emotion.” – David Oimon
He talked about how someone’s personal style is their creativity. They don’t
have to buy expensive things just to look good. They can go to a thrift shop or a friend’s closet and pick something out that would go well with their own wardrobe. David describes it as “a matching game… to see how many creative outfits you can come up with.”
Wolf’s Head clothing store
Since the era of high fashion, many people with a love of style have had to conform to the expensive habit that it designer brands. When creating your own personal style, someone could buy all of the designer brands, or they could choose to create using other outlets. With so many different individual styles out today, there is a bit of freedom from judgement in a sense.
What’s your personal style?
What will you create?
Feel free to visit the Wolf’s Head website here.
