Thursday, April 7, 2011

Reappropriated Perp Fashion Of The Week


The North Face Steep Tech

Urban (or hip hop or minority or whatever you want to call it) fashion has a long history of taking something that was originally not meant for them, or at least not marketed to them, and making it theirs. It's kind of like the hip hop ethos itself; sampling records, writing graffiti over an existing wall or train, it's a tradition. From Polo to Tommy Hilfiger to Timberlands, rich white people clothing has turned into ghetto fads for years.

One of the best examples of whitey to perp fashion is the North Face Steep Tech jacket. Originally meant for white people to wear when scaling mountains or hiking, I can not stress enough how freakin popular this jacket was in New York in the 90's among people who probably didn't even drink Mountain Dew never mind climbed one. These days, it's sold at Jimmy Jazz and VIM and other horrible stores like that, in ridiculous combinations such as this, but the original is still a classic and there are still collectors out there who dress like Inspectah Deck did in 1993. Matched up with a Hot Shot backpack or the misguided fashion trend that was the waist bag, the North Face Steep Tech will go down in history as a reappropriated perp classic.

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