Monthly Archives: April 2014

What is Streetwear?

Given this weekend we have just had I think it is undeniable to say that spring is here. I woke up this morning to the birds chirping outside! I haven’t heard birds chirping outside my window of third floor supplemental since last August! With warmer weather comes a change of style, shorts are brought out, shades turn to pastels, layering no longer becomes a necessity. I could indeed write about the topic of fashion in warmer weather but I have already done a blog post about spring fashion so instead I will try and explain to you a kind of clothing that is called streetwear. Mainly because as our blogging weeks come to a close I am running out of ideas and streetwear is the fashion I feel most strongly about.

I was surprised to find that the word streetwear actually is defined on Wikipedia. But then again it is Wikipedia and anyone can post via the internet there. Wikipedia has it defined as “a distinctive style of street fashion. Rooted in West Coast surf and skate culture, it has grown to encompass elements of hip hop fashion, Japanese street fashion, and modern Haute culture fashion.” I would say that this definition is pretty spot on even though streetwear is constantly evolving because it is based on current popular culture and what is coming from the streets. Streetwear is clothing made for casual wear in urban environments although there are some celebs like Pharrell Williams and Kanye West who go so far as to wear it on the red carpet. To express my photos this week I have chosen a model who is not only highly attractive but who has deep streetwear roots and has modeled for some of the biggest brands out there.

tumblr_mpu15cGIDN1rxv9sco5_1280

 

AdrianneHo_APC_3

 

adrianne-ho-unoffical-face-of-streetwear-menswear-0

Many times streetwear will be easy to identify. Streetwear pieces often feature bold graphic prints containing the companies logo or name plastered somewhere on the shirt, hat, jeans etc. Even though streetwear is all about power to the people and freedom of expression streetwear does come at a price. It may cost you a hefty sum to buy that new jacket that Supreme dropped or in this most recent case pair of shoes (Nike Supreme Foamposites which sold out in 10 seconds and are now being resold for around $700.)

ad1

 

ad2

 

ad3

 

jake-davis-test-shots-adrianne-ho-featuring-supreme-varsity-jacket-0

Streetwear is a hard topic to write about because it is so broad. Most fashion blogs like Hypebeast and Highsnobiety cover it merely by keeping up with current collections, looks, and projects being done by big name streetwear companies like Supreme, Stussy, and Bape. I could have taken that route and showed you upcoming collections every week and what limited edition pieces would be dropping soon but instead I took a more personal approach. With this blog and through my photos and writing I tried to give you all insight into the fashion that I know and love and I hope you have all enjoyed.

Sneaker Events

Many of you are probably unaware but in the world of sneakers there are giant conventions which are held for shoeheads to buy, trade, sell, and interact with others who are just as involved in the sneaker culture as they are. With this past weekend being SneakerCon DC and Sneaker Social at Gillette Stadium in Boston, I will be writing about these events and talking about my personal experiences attending them.

I remember my first sneaker event like it was yesterday. It was back in 2011 at the end of the school year. I took the train into DC with two of my friends who also happened to be shoeheads at the time. We got off at Union Station and walked about 15 minutes to the Atlas, a medium sized performing arts center, in NorthWest DC. As we approached the venue there was a line around the block. You could tell what the line was for by looking down at everyone’s feet. There were Air Jordan’s, Nike SB’s, Yeezy’s, running shoes, the list goes on and on. Any type of shoe you could imagine, someone was wearing it. I specifically remember it starting to drizzle while we were waiting in line. Other shoeheads were not very happy about this as who likes to get their nice clean shoes wet with dirty rain water? Although I wasn’t wearing any suede or nubuck shoes that day and didn’t mind much. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the front of the line and once we did we payed our $15 fee and were in.

292039_245234032189070_208762225836251_729147_1856043954_n (1)

 

1973507_10152055147551984_2028966584_o

 

061

 

sneakerconnycnovember2012recap60

Walking in felt incredible. The lobby of the Atlas led us down a wide hallway and into a large set of double doors which revealed a large flat open space that was packed with people. It was like being a kid in a candy store, there were shoes everywhere. There was a giant Adidas sneaker in the center of the room for people to autograph since Adidas was sponsoring the event. Tables were set up all around the perimeter of the room for the big vendors to sell their shoes at. You have to pay extra for a table, about $100, to have the luxury of not standing the whole event and so you can better display your shoes for sale. The floor area was very crowded with people holding their shoes in the air to try and catch the eye of someone who would want to buy them. It was like a giant open air market. People were talking all around me, discussing new releases and bargaining for better prices on the shoes they were trying to buy. I opened my backpack and took out my camera and started taking photos of everything. I walked around looking for shoes I recognized and went up to people asking price, size, condition, etc. searching for a pair I might want to purchase. Usually at these sneaker events is where you find amazing deals. There are stories of kids walking in with $200 and leaving six hours later with $1000 worth of shoes just from playing their cards right by making good buys, trades, and sales with their original $200.

194495_1962825155370_3009477_o

 

204805_1962831075518_8150804_o

My friends and I stayed for about two and a half hours before our feet started to hurt from standing for so long. By the end of the event I had bought two pairs of shoes and sold one. I had more fun being there than actually purchasing the kicks. I have attended two other sneaker events since then and will hopefully to continue to go and support the sneaker culture, community, and economy. It is quite the experience and even if you are not as into shoes as I may be, I recommend anyone to attend and maybe learn a little more about a hobby that they could possibly be apart of.

Recommendation Report Stance

Going into group discussion my mind was set on an exploration approach to GenEds. I have had great experience with my GenEds first semester and enjoyed the thought of being able to choose to take classes that actually seemed interesting to the student. The other two approaches seemed unnecessary and unappealing to me. The themes approach seemed too specific to one single topic, thus defeating the person of GenEds all together in my opinion, and the skills approach too bland, we have been forced to focus on the main skills (reading, writing and math) throughout our whole educational careers so why would we want  to do that in college while we actually have some freedom of what we can learn about?

Coming out of group discussion I had the same opinions for the most part, with the realization that skills are necessary to a healthy education and future in the job world so should be included somewhat in the GenEd curriculum. I learned that for the most part my classmates felt the same way as I did. They all have had good experiences with Gen Eds and believe that exploration is the most important part of the GenEd process. Everyone agreed that the themes approach was too limited to one subject and didn’t make much sense. What really helped shape my opinion was our discussion of the skills option. My group talked about how basic knowledge is good because it’s applicable to many careers and how within the broad category of skills there can be many different types of skills classes one could take. For example not just a skills class tailored to reading, writing or math. A skills class about finance and taxes would help college students learn about a real world task in a classroom setting, preparing them for the future. Skills classes could also be very broad like science or specific and connected to your major for example psych students need to know how to talk to people and might want to take a public speaking course or one that helps them learn to feel more comfortable talking with others. The more my group talked about the skills option the more it seemed necessary to include it in the GenEd curriculum at some level. What I will be proposing in my recommendation report is an option based primarily off of exploration (60%) with a good amount of skills based classes included (40%) to help prepare students for the real world and life after college.

GenEd Comment

I agree with the statement above that “students’ perspectives and expectations of General Education come from their experiences” as this statement can apply to almost any subject matter. Taking GenEd classes as a freshmen I had no idea what to expect of GenEd classes and no idea which ones were said to be easy or difficult. I instead chose the GenEd classes that I thought would be interesting to me. It is inevitable that there will be easier classes than others but I believe the point of GenEds is for the experience not the credits and if the teacher cares about what they are teaching, the rigor will follow. For the students who actually want to explore different subjects outside of their major Gen.Eds are the perfect way to do so. Out of the two GenEds I took freshmen year both were plenty rigorous involving going to every single class and work outside of class about every other day. However it is a problem that these “Easy A” classes do still exist in the GenEd curriculum. For the lazy students who do only want the credit they will take the easy classes and this is not fair for the rest of us. My personal opinion is that rigor stems from the teacher wanting to teach the class and therefore teach the students. The material of any course can be rigorous subject to the fact that the professor makes it that way.

Notes Option 3: Skills

Basic knowledge is good, applicable to many careers

Necessary to know how to read and write (better than theme idea)

Badges are weird? Just another thing, no point

Taking more skills based classes is a nice break from other classes

Finance/taxes class would be nice

As well as speaking to learn how to perform well in job interview/public speaking event

Con: students only worried about checking off requirements but you are still taking the class and going to learn regardless

Few more skills classes would be nice but exploration is still very necessary

Digital communication class important in society, technology constantly growing and should be tailored towards building up online presence

No expert teachers available to teach the classes

More exploratory classes (Gen Eds) may have to be cut for the skills classes to be available

Group consensus: Exploration. Compromise between exploration and skills would be best thing, 50% exploration, 50% skills no theme!

Money classes will help a lot for the future. Learn how to do taxes, loans, accounting, stock market

Skill classes that are specific or exploratory skill classes?

Everyone required to take Gen Eds even returning students who are grown ups

Main skill course: Public speaking, money, writing

Need broad skills and specific skills that are tailored to your major. Ex: Psych major needs to know how to talk to people

Badges are optional, don’t see what benefit of badges are, people will only do them if incentives are given out