It hasn't been a year yet since I have discovered the
Streetwear world. It started with where all the Urban Vinyl stores were.
360 Toygroup used to be right next door to
Recon/Nort and another spot that I can't think of the name of. I guess it started really with kicks. I would go to all the hipster hot spot to get exclusive kicks. The thing that bugged me out was that
ALL these dudes would be buying the same kicks from the same spot. LOL. If you ask me thats not exclusive anymore. I tend to go Downtown Newark and see what they have. I've been to SoHo and someone's stopped me and asked where did I get the kicks I was wearing. I would tell them Jersey and they would bug out. It's only because these clones of cool kids just go to the same five spots and see the same "exclusive" kicks. They would probably have a field day if they would walk in a
Modell's or
Footlocker..lol. Anyway it started with the sneaker thing. Then about 8 months ago I went to
Brooklyn Circus in NY. The store was amazingly small and the clothes' sizes matched the size of the store..lol. I went there for a
Art event presented by The
Sound Of Art. Everybody was wearing
Bapes and
Evisu jeans with the muskeeter cuffs rocking...lol. But on my jouney to sell toys to stores I saw more and more what street wear was. Going to places like
Division East in Montclair, City Allstars in Paterson and
Ombe in South Orange I got a pretty good grasp of what streetwear was.
Complex magazine and
Weekly Drop helped me out a lot. But being a new comer I have no business trying to tell someone- anymore for that matter- what streetwear is. To me it's defined by the pioneers of this genre. All these stores that have been here before me are what streetwear is to me. Skaters, Graph writers, ex- backpackers...lol. That's what I saw when I first got there and that's what I'm sticking with.
But this blog is about a book-
Steven Vogel's Street Wear.
Although this is the first book on streetwear I've ever seen he said it's not meant to be a beginning to end bible of what streetwear is but just his story.
-Despite what has been previously blogged about this endeavour it is by all means not a “guide” or another “fashion bible” or a “who’s who” in streetwear / street culture. One thing you will not find in this book is a definition of streetwear. I hate definitions, always have and throughout the process of creating this book a quote from one of my favourite French artists,
Robert Delaunay, gave my some guidance:” I am very much afraid of definitions, and yet one is almost forced to make them. One must take care, too, not to be inhibited by them. ”-
I has a great experience reading Bobbito's book "
Where'd you get those" but I never just take one persons word for it. I, my friend am a child of the
Reading Rainbow generation..lol.
