Photo credit: Kane Groceries
NASCAR is ear-deafeningly loud. Revved up cars, high-speed action and clothing that’s just as noisy as a souped-up stock car, racing graphics are a fun and bold trend for this winter. Highlighter hues, hefty padding and bulky leathers inspired by the gear worn for motocross and motorcycle racing make for a variety of looks that are both attention grabbing and constructed from quality industrial materials. This fixation on racing graphics nestles snugly into the larger late 90s and early 00s revival movement in fashion right now. While racing has always been a niche interest, the sport permeated mainstream consciousness in the early 2000’s with Jeff Hamilton’s classic racing jackets being worn by key rap celebrities and is now re-emerging yet again.
Amidst current political tensions and uncertainty, this newfound fascination with racing aesthetics can be attributed to nostalgia for the very emotions the sport embodies: freedom, dynamism, adventure and a touch of boyish rebellion. Simultaneously, racing uniforms mesh seamlessly with the modern-day appeal of bold color palettes and super graphic branding. The perennial motorcycle-inspired trend seen on the catwalks and streets is now reflecting a social shift in gender equality in sports and lifestyle.
The sport’s influence within the luxury market can be traced back to Yohji Yamamoto’s Y-3 FW04 collaboration with Italian motorcycle gear company, Dainese. In addition to the expertly cut and tailored garments he is known for, Yamamoto also sent models down the runway wearing a slick assortment of colorful leather jackets repping the Dainese logo and plenty of references to his own name and collections. Dainese, founded in 1972 by a motorcycle enthusiast, is known for being among the first to add color to traditionally all-black racing uniforms and for its technical design that exponentially advanced rider safety.
Photo credit: Namilia
Performance athletic gear collided with high fashion in a big way beginning in 2014, resulting in a convenient mix of style meets function. With so much emphasis being placed on material development and functional garments, there is room in the current landscape of fashion for designers to merge both the flashy visuals and the technical nature of racing gear.
Marc by Marc Jacobs’s FW14 collection featured a series of color-blocked pants, jackets and jerseys cut from sporty, lightweight cottons and tech fabrics. Racing inspired graphics and bold logos showered nearly every piece with slogans such as “revolution” or “truckz”. Vetements, a label famous for transforming non-luxury themes into stylish must-haves, debuted an oversize heavy-duty leather racing jacket for FW15 with bold blocks of sporty red and blue. The FW16 season was particularly hot for the racing graphic trend. Maison
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Margiela‘s collection was riddled with multi-colored leather moto jackets and pants and Namilia’s best selling velour bright & pastel racing two-piece sets read “feel the heat”. Alexander Wang and Rag & Bone among others continued full speed ahead, presenting their take on leather motorcycle pants and jackets. Supreme and Palace toyed with racing-inspired streetwear pieces for SS17. At Balenciaga’s AW17 show, creative director Demna Gvasalia made pencil skirts of luxury car mats. In matte black, racing green and reflective silver, they were wrapped tightly around the models’ waists. To drive home the high-octane reference, he paired them with evening bags that looked like wing mirrors and totes made of spare tire covers.
NASCAR and hip-hop have always been completely separate worlds until rappers developed a penchant for racing jackets that were covered in patches and logos. Traditionally, NASCAR is associated with being a redneck sport, with not much room for people of color. Somewhat tongue in cheek, racing jackets were introduced to the rap genre in late 90s/early 00s by the likes of rap stars Pharrell, Cam’ron and Trick Daddy. In a 2000 interview with CNN, rap game OG, Trick Daddy, was quoted saying, “I love the NASCAR clothing. I love the colors. And I believe I wore it with some yellow pants, and they was like, whoa, that’s tight.” Always ahead of his time, Pharrell was one of the most iconic celebrities to sport one of the jackets. He wore a Jeff Gordon jacket that had a massive Pepsi logo among many others across the chest, a loud look for someone with more than enough style to pull it off.
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Designer Jeff Hamilton helped truly establish the trend when he modified racing clothes to appeal to the hip-hop market. The Los Angeles-based entrepreneur added brighter colors and additional logos to create a new look. After securing the licensing rights from NASCAR and several well-known drivers, Hamilton began putting jackets on the backs of high-profile rappers such as Busta Rhymes, Cam’ron and Li’l Cease. This queued other popular urban designers of the early 2000’s including Phat Farm, Sean Jean, Karl Kani and FUBU to release racing jackets of their own.
These days, streetwear has found itself digging in forgotten styles of the 2000’s, bringing them new life. Heron Preston, one part of Been Trill, designed a long sleeve T-shirt for his own line that features an inverted NASCAR logo along with all the most classic sponsor logos. There are 17 logos on Heron Preston’s signature long-sleeve shirt: M&Ms, Trix, Google, Remington, Home Depot, and most importantly NASCAR. Looked at one way, the logos are 17 advertisements, 17 declarations of loyalty. The function of a logo is to advertise, and these are established images, familiar and eye-catching. However, the quantity of logos seems to cancel each other out. Preston’s shirt has the air of anti-promotion. The graphics compete with one another for attention, ultimately privileging none. They become removed, much like a lot of social media culture when everybody is desperate for attention yet only a few receive it.
Photo credit: Tony Katai
Some streetwear historians say that the racing jacket trend was especially popular in Washington DC, which may have something to do with why the Goth Money Records crew has been spotted in racing gear many times. Kane Groceries used to wear around the iconic Home Depot racing jacket. In Robb Banks 2013 music video for “On Me” he wears the classic M&M red and blue jacket. In 2014 KirbLaGoop released an EP called Nascar Jacket’z An Bo’z. That same year, Black Kray and Black Dave released a collaborative EP called Slammin Mafuggin Doors which has an album cover adorned in NASCAR logo flips and sport graphics. Earlier in 2017 both Maxo Kream and 808 Mafia released NASCAR logo flip merch. Lil Uzi Vert’s smash hit, XO Tour Llif3, even mentions racing motifs. “Fast car, NASCAR, Race on.”
There is no foreseeable end in sight to the racing graphic trend as new styles keep popping up every day. The NASCAR organization hopes the fashion craze will help attract new fans to the sport as they are always looking for ways to expand their community. Though most wearers of the street style motorcycle gear garments don’t know or care much about what the logos are referencing and only wear them for aesthetic purposes, it is still good promotion for the racing industry. A rep from NASCAR , Brian France, says, “in order to have a bigger urban impact, anytime you can create awareness, you have a chance to create interests.