2014 is a great year to celebrate fashion.
Designers, such as the late Alexander McQueen, have taken dressing to new heights, really transforming fashion into a true, modern art form. Celebrities have always had a hand in creating a buzz about fashion. Recently, however, it seems that fashion and pop culture have become even closer colleagues and heavily influence one another, and musicians, specifically, have taken a role of being prime examples of who to wear and how to dress.
I have to be honest here: most of the designers who are in the “new designer” or “young designer” genre, I learned about from listening to A$AP Rocky. His song “Fashion Killa” lists over 27 designers, including Alexander Wang, Rick Owens, Helmut Lang and Isabel Marant, all of which have become major names in fashion recently. He starred in a delightfully light and funny videoad for the Bon Qui QuiSpring 2013 T by Alexander Wang campaign alongside comedian Bon Qui Qui (the character is Bon Qui Qui, the comedian is Anjelah Johnson) and model Alessandra Ambrosio. Rocky also got the chance to walk the runway at New York Fashion Week for Hood by Air, whose futuristic designs he wears in many of his music videos.
“I’m conscious about not looking like everybody else when I get dressed,” he said in an interview with SBTV Fashion.
Azealia Banks is also another artist that is heavily involved in the fashion community. Banks frequents fashion shows and is often photographed at parties with the fashion in-crowd. I saw her face and name at fashion parties far before I listened to her music, but now, I am hooked. Her 90s hip-hop/dance hybrid sound and her avant-garde look make this on-the-rise rapper hard to miss. Coincidentally, Banks was the subject of the Fall 2012 T by Alexander Wang campaign, which featured her and her song, “Van Vogue,” in a stylized music video-esque campaign. Even as a fashion lover, Banks has an interesting and refreshing take on music artists being branded with certain labels.
“I think that too much fashion attention as an artist can actually smother you, and it can really, really distract from your music,” Banks said. “I kind of almost got there with it, where it was just like, fashion, fashion, fashion, fashion, fashion, and I was this fashion darling.”
She has since been focusing more on her music but still remains a fixture in the fashion world.
Lady Gaga is still the outrageous and daring character she has always been, even though she has taken a more out-of-the-spotlight approach to fame lately. Donatella Versace and the singer are known to be close friends; she was the subject of Gaga’s song “Donatella,” and Lady Gaga was featured as the model for the Spring 2014 Versace campaign. This is a prime example of a healthy designer-artist partnership. The artist earns fame from being publicized and receives gobs of fabulous clothing while the designer gains notoriety from being associated with a fixture of pop culture.
No proper discussion of fashion and music could be complete without mentioning Kanye West. The self-proclaimed “Louis Vuitton Don” first arrived in the spotlight with an awkward preppy style, which included lots of Polo Ralph Lauren. Fast forward 10 years and West is now on the front-row list of most premier designers.
“Skinny pants are rock ‘n’ roll,” he said in an interview with GQ Magazine. “And big coats are really hip-hop. I’m looking for 50 percent rock ‘n’ roll, 50 percent hip-hop, 50 percent genius. Because, you know—for genius, you have to be at a 150 percent.”
Alex Presley
alexandra.pres@yahoo.com
