Streetwear Reviews

jefferson john babasa asked:


The hip hop fashion industry has boomed since the time that hip hop fashion became the trend of the world. Several brands have begun to come out since then, setting their own names and trends on the world that hip hop culture has created. Names such as Sean John, Akademiks, G-Unit, Phat Farm, Apple Bottoms, and House of Dereon became the names that many of the urban community speak of.

Today, aside from the brands stated above, there are now more than a hundred brands of hip hop clothing lines around the world from which are either popular on their own country or those that made a name across the world.

So let me give you the 10 most sought after brands that have set a trend around the world and made a name that no one else could ever forget.

#1 Akademiks

From the top hip hop fashion clothing line is the brand akademiks. Akademiks is American brand of hip hop clothing line popular among the followers of the hip hop culture. The label was mainly founded by the brothers Donwan Harrell and Emmet Harrell, along with another group of partners.

One of the facts that made akademiks very popular is because of its designs. Donwan Harrell, one of the Harrell brothers that founded the akademiks, is also is also one of the former top 10 designers at Nike.

Akademiks was popularized in 2001 by the Brooklyn rapper Fabolous whose lyrical content included the akademiks brand. Aside from that, Fabolous also wore an akademiks velour on the inside cover of his debut album Ghetto Fabolous.

Aside from its own popularity, akademiks has gained popularity in the clothing industry due to the number of celebrities who wear the brand’s PRPS jeans, such as rappers Dizzee Rascal and 50 Cent.

#2 Apple Bottoms

One of the top favorites of women when it comes to hip hop fashion is apple bottoms. Apple bottoms is a fashion and lifestyle brand for girls, which was launched in 2003 by multi-platinum recording artist Nelly, alongside Yomi Martin & Ian Kelly.

Apple bottoms was inspired by Nelly’s vision that “a woman should not try to fit the clothes; the clothes should fit the woman!”

The first collection launched by the company was Apple Bottoms jeans. The apple bottoms women’s denim collection sold out nationally in a period faster than anticipated by the company. This success led the founders to expand their brand. Currently the apple bottoms label includes: apparel, footwear, handbags, eyewear RX, intimates, sunglasses, accessories, jewelry, cold weather, and girl’s apparel.

#3 Baby Phat

Baby Phat is an urban fashion line of clothing and other items for women and girls designed by is an American model and author Kimora Lee Simmons. It is Simmons’ goal to fashion Baby Phat, launched in 1999, into an “aspirational lifestyle brand.” She also stated she wants to get more Baby Phat into discount stores such as TJ Maxx and Goodwill.

One of Baby Phat’s distinct features is its logo. Baby Phat’s slinky feline logo has become an internationally recognizable fashion symbol which is synonymous with the brand. The eye-catching hip-hugging signature jeans represent everything that is feminine and fun, glitzy and glamorous, sensuous and sumptuous about the Baby Phat woman.

Besides clothing, the brand also includes accessories for phones, jewelry, shoes and clothes. It is the corporate “sibling” of the clothing brand Phat Farm created by Russell Simmons.

#4 Coogi

Another brand that made a clear name across the world is Coogi. Coogi is a clothing line popular for its brightly colored designs of clothing lines. The intricate patterns and weaving techniques made Coogi sweaters one of the most prized pieces to men of wealth.

The brand was founded by Jacky Taranto of Melbourne, Australia in 1969. The initial idea was to attract American tourists visiting Australia by designing their luxury woven sweaters with bright colors. He felt that tourists would love this and he was right about that. In time, his clothing line reached America and was evolved to cater every hip hopers need for urban fashion.

#5 Eck? unltd.

Eck? unltd. is a brand of urban clothing founded by fashion designer Marc Ecko, that has been popular since the late 1990s, and moved into the mainstream urban culture in the early 2000s.

Marc Ecko is an American entrepreneur and founder of the highly successful Marc Ecko clothing line and its parent company Marc Ecko Enterprises. Marc Ecko Enterprises has grown to include many separate Eck? unltd. apparel and accessories lines, the contemporary Marc Ecko “Cut & Sew” collection, G-Unit Clothing Company, Avirex Sportswear, Complex magazine, and Marc Ecko Entertainment, a full service production company, with a focus on interactive entertainment.

The *eck? brand has expanded to include 12 lines comprised of Ecko Unlimited, Ecko Red, Eck? Function, Marc Ecko Leather, Marc Ecko watches, Marc Ecko Scopes, Eck? Storage, Marc Ecko Footwear, Zoo York, Marc Ecko Cut and Sew, the new Eck? Unlimited Boys and Ecko Red Girls lines.

#6 G-Unit

The G-Unit Clothing Company was established in 2003 when 50 Cent teamed up with Marc Ecko, the founder of Ecko Unlimited to create a line of clothing and accessories by 50 Cent and G-Unit.

50 cent is an American rapper who rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2003) and The Massacre (2005). The name, G-Unit, was also the name of 50 cent’s recording label, G-Unit Records which was founded on 2003.

But other than music, 50 Cent has established himself in a wide variety of fields such as fashion. In November 2003, he signed a five year deal with Reebok to distribute a “G-Unit Sneakers” line as part of his G-Unit Clothing Company.

#7 House of Dereon

The house of dereon is a prêt-à-porter fashion line introduced by singer Beyoncé Knowles and her mother/stylist Tina Knowles. The design of the house of dereon clothing lines was inspired by three generations of women in their family, with the name “dereon” paying tribute to Beyoncé’s grandmother, Agnèz dereon.

The house of dereon mixes hip-hop influences, such as its use of denim, with ultrafeminine flourishes like embroidery and ruffles.

In an interview, Beyoncé said “I love the clothes from the ’70s, my mother’s clothes. I love clothes from the ’40s, my grandmother’s style, so elegant. We wanted to take elements from my grandmother’s legacy–the beaded lace, lush colors, fine fabrics–and mix them with clothes from my mother’s generation and my generation.”

#8 Rocawear

Rocawear is an urban clothing label created in 1995 by Jay-Z and Damon Dash. Because of the popularity of rocawear, a report was made that rocawear has annual sales of $700 Million.

Because of the success that rocawear had received from the day it started, its founders have decided to expand their brand and incorporate other products such as lines for children, juniors, socks and sandals, leather suede and fur outerwear, handbags and belts, lounge wear and big & tall, headwear, jewelry, and sunglasses.

In March 2007, the ownership of rocawear was shifted from Jay-Z to Iconix Brand Group. Jay-Z sold his shares for $204 million. Though he’s no longer the owner of rocawear, Jay-Z still retained his stake in the company and will continue to oversee the marketing, licensing and product development.

#9 Sean John

Sean John is a clothing and fragrance line founded by hip-hop mogul sean john Combs, in 1998. The name is taken from Combs’ first and middle given names.

Part of what made the sean john clothing line popular is the people that represents that brand. People representing the brand include Combs himself, rappers such as T.I., Fabolous, The Game, Daddy Yankee, basketball stars including Dwayne Wade and Tristan Sooklal, plus models Tyson Beckford and Kevin Navayne.

The collection is separated into categories including Sean John Sportswear, Sean John Tailored, and Sean John accessories. Product categories include suits, knitwear, bottoms, outerwear, leather accessories, shirts, ties, hats, and denim.

As one of the trend setter that gave rise to hip hop fashion, the products are inspired by Combs’ image and reflect his personal style.

#10 Vokal

Another one of Nelly’s line of branded clothing line is Vokal. Vokal was launched in 1997 as a Hip Hop Fashion brand by Yomi Martin, his cousin Cornell “Nelly” Haynes and Nick Loftis.

The clothing label, titled Vokál, stands for “very organized kids always learning”. Being Vokal simply means, let your actions do the talking in a positive manner. Both Nelly and Yomi Martin wanted to produce clothing where the designs would be so strong the clothing would speak for itself. That’s why the slogan is ‘Vokál, the clothing speaks for itself’.

” Vokál means `speak for yourself’ and this clothing speaks for itself,” says Nelly.



http://www.freshprincehats.com

jefferson john babasa asked:


The book called Mizan is a comprehensive treatise on the contents of Islam, written by Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, a Pakistani Islamic scholar. Mizan in English means Balance. Aside from the book, there is also another term that came from the name Mizan itself, and its intended to show balance between art and fashion, the meezan art couture clothing lines.

Balance is all around us such as the way we balance our expenses, the way we balance our time with our work and family, the way we balance our exercise from moderate to rigorous, the balance in nature such as predator and prey. Balance can also be applied on making masterpieces such as paintings, sculptures and clothing designs.

Meezan Art Couture or simply meezan is a brand of urban clothing lines founded in Philadelphia by Mark Allen, Kenya Abdul-Hadi, Ibn Anderson, and Bariq Cobbs. Meezan Art Couture was named after an islamic term Mizan which means balance.

In fashion, balancing is also required to achieve perfection or even close to perfection, and meezan has acquired true balance on their shirts. Inspired by the word balance, meezan has been skillfully designed specifically to balance fashion from art that other brands of clothing lines have clearly missed.

The meezan art couture clothing line is made specifically for men that started from a niche brand of specialty one of a kind pieces, into a full lifestyle clothing brand, specializing in innovative designs and graphics. The meezan art couture revolutionized the way we wear clothes because of its stunning artwork and still retaining its fashionable features.

Though meezan art couture is popular on its own, finding an authentic and original brand can be hard, especially online. Many online urban and hip hop clothing shops sells meezan branded clothing lines, and one of them is Streetzwear.

Streetzwear is an online urban clothing store that sells one of the widest brands of clothing lines including sean john, apple bottoms, house of dereon, meezan, miskeen, enyce, akademiks, gino green global, avirex, and many more.

The meezan art couture displays such magnificent balancing of colors and designs of their clothes, and balance from semi formal to urban wear. If you want more information on meezan art couture clothing line then visit Streetzwear and avail on their collection of meezan clothing lines.



http://www.freshprincehats.com

jefferson john babasa asked:


 

So you want to start your own business of setting up a fashion clothing store? Well, who wouldn’t? The clothing industry has truly boomed since the start of fashion clothing lines, especially the hip hop fashion clothing lines. Brands like sean john Clothing, the House of Dereon, apple bottoms, are brands that made fashion clothes more popular than ever. This is because of the brand entailing too much publicity made by the brand’s founder such as sean john, Beyonce, and Nelly.

In opening your clothing store, you must be willing to make commitments such as giving up the safety of your corporate job with its steady income, paid holidays, vacations, the opportunity for advancement, and more than 12 hours of working.

Running a fashion clothing store is more than just a full time job, but a life style, doing the same thing over and over again, in every single day of the week and of the month. So you must think it carefully before embarking on this escapade, because there are only two ways in ending this journey, either a successful one or failed one.

In starting your own clothing store, there are two things that you should always take into consideration. The first thing is yourself and your target market. First let’s talk about you.

Things You Should Possess

Before opening the doors of your clothing store, here are some questions that I’m willing to ask of you. Remember, the answers you’ll get from these questions will serve as your basis if you are really ready to start a fashion clothing business.

Are You Experienced Enough?

As plain as the question asks, are you experienced enough to handle such business? Experience plays a huge factor in the success of any business. May it be experience in working with other clothing store, or may it be experience in taking up merchandizing classes, or may it be experience in helping your grandparents set up their own businesses. Whatever experience you may have, it will serve to be very useful especially when you’re confronted with problems that you’ll encounter in you journeys ahead.

Are You The Risk Taker?

Well are you really the risk taker? I mean, could you take on problems coming in from every side? Could you make life’s worth of sacrifice just to take up your business a notch? Well? Could you take that risk? Could you take the risk that you will loose everything in this tiny decision that you’ll be making? Could you take that? Well, I’m not here to frighten you or to turn you away from this line of business, what I’m trying to do is testing how much risk you can take. And this is the first risk that you’ll be facing in this business.

Any businesses, may it be food service or selling house tools, face risks. These risks are a way for businesses to grow. Let me explain this a little more, lets say risks are an impenetrable wall, if take it as a challenge to scale it to the top and over the wall, then you’ll likely to find a new and brighter future for your business. But remain there behind that wall then your business will remain where it is. So risks, if taken as a challenge, then you might find risks to be much enjoyable to encounter.

Are You a Specialist?

Well I didn’t mean for you to become the professor specializing in fashionable clothing lines to start your clothing store. All you have to possess is a keen knowledge in sensing what’s hot and what’s not in the world of fashion clothing. If you’re opening an apparel store for the right reasons, you probably think you’ve got the corner on something someone else in your professional community doesn’t.

Specializing on what to provide is crucial for a business to grow. You should always check what your competitors are selling. No apparel store should be stocking twill khaki shorts if there’s a Gap within 10 miles.

Are You Competitive?

A good sense of competitiveness can go a long way in this line of business. Always remember that People can get everything that you sell at their local mall, so you have to set yourself apart other ways.

TIP: Pay attention to the demographics in your area, to the location and available foot traffic, to television and movies and what people are wearing on the street. This way, even when there’s a mall over there; people would visit your shop instead.

Are You Good in Choosing the Right Location?

You ability to choose the right location for your shop is very important in this line of business. The volume and quality of foot traffic in the area where your clothing store is located will determine the outcome of your business. Lesser foot traffic will generate lesser exposure, which you’ll in turn gain lesser profit. A perfect location to start your business is on a commercial area.

TIP: Commercial areas are always abundant with foot traffic, but it’s also abundant with competitors.

Just like I said earlier on; a good sense of competitiveness can go a long way. So before setting up a store, do a little research on what your competitors is trying to sell. Let’s say this shop sells sean john Clothing t-shirts, but lacks in pants, or the other shop sells some apple bottoms jeans, yet lacks in skirts. So all you have to do is take advantage on this weakness of your competitors and try to sell what they aren’t selling.

But it is also advisable to stay clear out of site of those big shops that sells almost everything from sean john Clothing, to House of dereon, apple bottoms and Rocawear. Choose a place where you’re at your level with your competitors. So in choosing your location, you must have that ability to make a research about your competitors.

Your Target Market

Now that you know what you must possess before starting you clothing store, now let’s learn about your target market. Clothing stores are different from each other, there are those that specializes in bridal and wedding gowns, there are those that specializes in business and formal attires, some specializes in providing urban clothing lines such as the sean john, House of dereon, apple bottoms But all of these fall in three categories, the Women, the Men, and the Children. So before you start your clothing store, you must choose where to specialize on.

So here is some tiny information about the three different markets you’ll be choosing from.

Let’s first start with the hardest, the Women. If you’re going to open a women’s apparel store, you already know that the tastes of the “fickle” female customer. Every expert has agreed that the very first thing a prospective women’s apparel retailer must do is decide where the “market-vendor” gaps are. In other words, which customers in the store’s trading area will you serve, and what apparel can you provide (and at what price) that can’t be found easily elsewhere? Once you’ve determined this, you can buy accordingly.

Here is a short list of the brands that women usually want a clothing shop to possess:

o sean john Clothing for Ladies

o apple bottoms

o House of dereon

o Rocawear

o Makaveli Ladies

o L.E.I

o Mudd

o Seven7

o Steve Madden

Now when it comes to the Men, men are often single and usually has money to spend–but typically still has to be brought by their girlfriend or wife to spend their money on clothes. His job may not require a coat and tie, but unless he’s working in the Silicon Valley with hipster entrepreneurial types, he still wants to look good. If given the choice, most men would rather throw a bridal shower than shop for a new sportcoat. The only good thing about the casual dress trend, however, is that because of the trend, men seem more willing to be dragged into a clothing store.

Here is a short list of brands that men would want to spend their moneys on in clothes:

o Phat Farm

o Makaveli

o Rocawear

o sean john Clothing

o Snoop Dogg

o Coogi

o Hypnotic

o Miskeen

o Southpole

o Gino Green Global

Now clothes for Children are where the money really is. In this market, you’re not really targeting kids here; you’re aiming more for their parents. The children’s apparel market is estimated to account for $20 billion to $22 billion in sales every year and is considered among the fastest-growing segments of the overall retail market. The more financially stable parents are, the more they’ll be willing to spend on boutique clothing for their children.

The bulk of children’s clothing sales (up to 60 percent) come from those cute matching outfits, like matching top-and-bottom coordinates. When it comes to colors, seasonal trends like animal prints come and go, but the consistent top sellers are still–no surprise here–light blue, pink and green.

Here is a short list of brands that Children usually want for their birthdays:

o Rocawear

o sean john Clothing for Kids

o G-Unit

o Phat Farm

o Ecko

o Enyce

Now that you know and have planned all your plans, its time for you to finally open the doors of your clothing shop. But before doing that, here are some tips on how to make your grand opening truly grand.

Before opening your doors, it’s important that people around you know that you’re opening your fashion clothing store at this day and at this time. This can be done by advertising your store. Weeks or months prior to your opening day, ensure that you have mailed or distributed fliers, set up ads in the advertising section of your local newspaper, post bill-boards and flashy signs at a corner near your store. If you could, you could hire people to distribute fliers to passing people, or just seek some help from your families and friends.

By the time you open up your store, make sure that you and your sales people (if there is any) are ready to take in the customers.

Put on a big smile, but not that big. And always assist every customer that has a question about your collections. Never let your customers unattended, make sure that they are getting what they want and how they wanted it.

If you want to learn more about the prices of those brands I talked to you about, visit Streetzwear at www.streetzwear.com to learn more about it.



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