Fashion and music have had an inseparable relationship for as long as they’ve existed. And this comes as no surprise; they’re both beautifully expressive art forms that promote unique perspectives.
Not to mention they’re widely accessible, building communities of like-minded creatives — such as today underground SoundCloud community. Despite mostly being home to moody teens and outcast alike, this community holds a remarkable amount of not only musical talent, but style icons as well.
From the depths of the underground scene, which in essence is pretty young, we’ve seen stars grow from a few thousand plays on YouTube/SoundCloud to being discussed within global high-fashion markets. With a community growing day by day there are undoubtedly more to come, some probably lurking within our Fits of the Week segments already. But lets take a step back and look at those who’ve already made the jump ‘from the underground to high-fashion’.
When the scene was first burgeoning, the birth of internet culture had helped create cloud rap, a loosely defined genre that inspired a lot of what we hear and see today. It’s no surprise that some of the biggest names in pioneering cloud rap (Clams Casino, Yung Lean, Lil B, SpaceGhostPurrp) are also big names in pioneering the current scene. SGP founded Raider Klan, Yung Lean formed the Sad Boys who are closely affiliated with Drain Gang, and Lil B taught us ‘all how to swagg in videos.’
Alongside this we had the origins of the A$AP Mob (thanks to some help from SGP) and Odd Future ‘OFWGKTA’. Everything that just listed, in essence, has one way or another influenced virtually everything you’re hearing and seeing today. This ‘first wave’ of the underground was just less than ten years ago, and even though some of the people initially involved here have not been on the runway themselves, it still has created some global fashion gods.
Starting with Yung Lean and his affiliates, hailing all the way from Stockholm Sweden, their presence online has always been massive. Music videos were a key factor in recognising the brilliance of their music. The nonsensical, dreamlike, almost tumblr-core editing paired with a laid-back lackadaisical approach to fashion gave off the impression that it didn’t take itself to seriously. And back then with a name like “Sad Boys” it had to.
The entire package and brand they brought was unlike anything else at that time and so obviously kids everywhere started to fall in love with it. It was only then when you started to notice the real fashion and unique style they brought to the table, through brands we all know and love such as: Nike, Helly Hansen, North Face and Polo, that you’d grow to love their style. And then it wasn’t long until kids realised they could dress like that too making the Sad Boys and Drain gang early underground style icons.
Lean, Yung Gud and Yung Sherman (Sad Boys) and Bladee, Ecco2k, Thaiboy Goon and Whitearmor (Drain Gang/Gravity boys) have since displayed their personal senses of style through smart moves in lieu of their own goals. As a collective we’ve seen merch collections drop and even collaborations with brands such as Etsty and Converse. We’ve also seen Yung Lean model for the all-star ‘In #MyCalvins’ Calvin Klein campaign, Bladee walk runway for Nasir Mazhar AW15 in London, and both Ecco2k and Bladee walk for Alyx Studio’s Spring 2019 collection. Ecco2k, an absolute alien of self-expression even within the group, created a brand called g’LOSS. Between all of this, they’ve seen coverage from magazines such as Vogue and i-D, cementing their places in the fashion world.
A$AP Rocky, has also been an upstanding name when it comes to style ever since his explosion on to the scene in 2011 with his classic Live.Love.A$AP mixtape. No one can deny that it’s Rocky’s fashion sense, and high-end sensibility that propelled him alongside his music to the worldwide stardom he enjoys today. And furthermore no one can deny that the several covers he’s graced, including i-D and pop magazine, whilst also appearing in British and American Vogue prove his place as an icon in fashion. A debut single in 2011, to being the face of DKNY alongside Cara Delevingne in 2014 and selling out a capsule collection with Guess in 2017, surely inspires artists now that are as interested in upmarket fashion as he was. And with all the 14 year olds rapping about brands they don’t own, there’s clearly a lot of you guys out there.
Despite a different type of come up, when talking about artists who’ve risen to the heights of fashion you’d be a fool not to mention Young Thug. Thugs eccentric style and persona, ever-present in his zany music videos, have help put him in places some of his contemporaries aren’t. A Phillip Plein runway for F/W 17, a 2016 Puma track suit campaign and even the Yeezy Season 3 stage. As an audience we can’t help but be enamored as Jeffrey, SEX (or whatever he likes to go by nowadays) breaks artistic boundaries by simply being himself.
A moment of his, that’ll surely go down in history has to be his mentoring for VFILES runway’s Season 7. Where mid show in NYFW, Thug steps onto the runway, blunt in mouth, to adjust a models outfit. Moments like these are why Thug’s a cemented icon within the Hip-hop-verse and a trend setter of his generation.
Looking back now at the SoundCloud generation, and artists a little closer to the underground, it’s really interesting to see how artists who differentiate themselves through style and clothing have also been able to infiltrate the High-fashion world. The beloved by all Lil Peep is an amazing example to look at, bringing his own flair of eccentricities and anarchy to the runway. These qualities allowed him to rub noses with fashion insiders all throughout fashion week SS18. Whether it was front row at Balmain in Paris, or even walking runway for Marcelo Burlon and VLONE, Peep made his mark in the underground and fashion world alike.
Another name we’ve seen rise within fashion has to be Playboi Carti. It can be easy to forget that Carti, who’s now collaborated with Lana del Rey and even preformed on SNL, was once a SoundCloud based artist. Before A$AP Rocky and the A$AP Mob took him under their wing, whenever Carti wasn’t preaching on YouTube about how some “thought he changed on em” and had to “surpass” them, he was working with some of our favourite underground (but not entirely underground) producers, such as Mexikodro, Ethereal, and he even hopped on the infamous 6Silky and BasedTj instrumental. Even if you don’t recognize the beat I’m talking about, you’ll know whats up when you hear it. Point is, Carti was a fully involved underground figure, but thanks to effortless swag in both music and style he’s moved with the right people into the right places.
With help from Ian Connor and Rocky we first saw the Atlanta rap star model in Drake’s OVO Summer 2016 editorial and the Yeezy season 5 show for Kanye West. He performed at NYFW in 2016 for VFILES on their runway and we’ve seen on covers such as Them Magazine and BRICK. He’s also been featured in GQ, however one of his fashion moments that’s probably one of the most important to Carti himself was meeting his favourite designer Raf Simons. This happened when Rocky introduced him at Raf Simons’ first collection at Calvin Klein.
Since then we’ve seen what is perhaps the most rapper/artist inclusive, high fashion runway show with Louis Vuitton’s Men’s 2019 Spring-Summer Collection by Virgil Abloh in Paris. Where we saw the likes of: Carti, Steve Lacey, Dev Hynes, Theophilus London, Octavian and Bakar. Not forgetting one of this generations key inspirations Kid-Cudi. With the show being the first of a black artistic director at the established fashion house, and with it all going so well, it just goes to show the importance of representation and involvement. It’s also encouraging to see Virgil utilize the help of those he’s worked with while he was coming up, as some of them had already done work for Off-White.
The next young star, with a great track record so far, when it comes to fashion too seems to be Sheck Wes. The New York Cactus Jack signee, also known as Sheck Jesus is different in that he can be looked at equally as artist and model. He’s been featured in 2016’s Yeezy Season 3 and a Helmut Lang editorial for men’s Fall 2018 collection. At just 19 he is surely one to watch out for. Other ‘artists models’ as we might call them, include the Uk’s Lancey Foux and Midnights Memory (fkaTeddy.Xoxo). Two highly original artists that’ve bagged impressive modelling gigs solely through their model looks, whilst also being active in the underground.
None of the artists who’ve risen from the underground to high fashion have done so by accident. They’ve been smart to use their unique styles to their advantage and with many smaller acts doing the same thing now, it’ll be interesting to see whose next. They may even be reading this right now…