Fashion and culture have always been interlinked. The world around us impacts what we wear, and we can track lots of cultural developments through style and fashion. One style that has had a huge impact on culture, and vice versa, is streetwear.

We’re going to be looking into how culture impacts fashion, and how it especially contributes to the streetwear trend. We’ll be looking at the highs and the lows of this trend, from tracksuits to  stacked flares so get ready!

History of Streetwear

This is one trend that has been developing for many years and that took a while to come into the mainstream. It was originally brought into view by rappers in the 80s although it didn’t get a good rep until the 90s. This is when we started to see streetwear come into its own and be taken up by mainstream audiences.

As the music came into the mainstream, the fashion followed. This started the era of streetwear becoming the cool, underground style that people were beginning to follow. The streetwear look has continued to stick around in the mainstream.

In the noughties, we saw the rise of brands like Juicy Couture being worn by the likes of Paris Hilton. This threw a different group of people into the streetwear demographic – teenage girls. This widened the gap between the different demographics of people who were wearing streetwear brands, as well as what streetwear itself meant.

This side of streetwear eventually died out but has been looking to make a comeback as Y2K fashion comes back into the fold. We’ve seen a resurgence of the noughties style of streetwear that has returned as people begin to look back on the noughties with a sense of nostalgia.

Modern-Day Streetwear

Nowadays, you won’t be able to walk down the street without seeing someone in some form of streetwear. The most commonly worn branch of streetwear that we now see everywhere falls under the umbrella of activewear.

People have started to wear the clothes that they wear to the gym, out and about to meet friends or to run errands. There has even been an uptake in people wearing activewear out for lunch or on a day trip out. There are upsides to this as everyone likes to be comfortable, but wearing activewear in certain situations has people divided.

Restaurants or going out in the evening are where people typically draw the line for wearing activewear, but some persist that they should be able to wear whatever they like, whenever they like. This is where we find the culture is at odds with itself as there are some who think that rules on clothing are outdated, and some who believe that we shouldn’t be confined by clothing rules.

Future Streetwear Trends

There are lots of things we can expect to see develop in the streetwear world in the future. Some of these are:

• Focus on sustainable streetwear

People are getting more and more conscious about what impact they have on the planet, and fashion is a huge part of that. Fast fashion is very damaging to the environment, and this means that people are looking for more sustainable options.

We can expect to see streetwear follow this in the future and ensure that this style of clothing is more environmentally responsible.

• Incorporating technology

Technology is changing all the time, and all industries have to adapt. Technology and clothing doesn’t mean that there will be smartphones built into your streetwear. It’s more about making new technology to improve fabric strengths as well as different temperatures and weathers. This is an exciting development for the future of streetwear, and we look forward to seeing where it takes us.

Streetwear is a style that seems to be able to adapt and change as the culture around us does. This means it’s one of the types of fashion that’s always in style.

Photo by cottonbro studio via Pexels

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