Director Sacha Jenkins’s new film shows what it really means to be fresh to def.
"I already know that story," native New Yorkers said when I told them how excited I was about Fresh Dressed, a new documentary that explores how hip-hop influenced mainstream fashion in America — and around the world.
I think they got stuck on the "hip-hop" part, and to some that story is familiar: In the '70s the South Bronx was burning, gangs were "rumbling," and young people took their rage and swagger from street violence to turntables, dance battles, and eventually, rap. What to make then, of the fact that a film about hip-hop's sartorial impact starts before the time period commonly known as the "birth of hip-hop," and goes all the way back to slavery?
"I think the film is smarter than anyone anticipated it being, and I think that it's a blessing and a miracle to a certain extent that I was able to ... say some things I wanted to say and make a film that was entertaining," Fresh Dressed's director, Sacha Jenkins, told BuzzFeed News.
Vibrant, funky, and animated (literally, it features dope animation by artist Hector Arias) — Fresh Dressed embodies the genre it dissects. Here's a few things BuzzFeed News learned, ahead of the doc's premiere this Thursday at 9 p.m. on CNN.
This opening quote from Yeezy himself sets the tone for the doc, and it's parroted by everyone from André Leon Talley and Dame Dash, to Pharrell, Diddy, and Nas. Fresh Dressed attempts to unearth the root of why appearance is so important to young black and brown people, while also covering the blossoms it produced, namely the ascent of urban brands like FUBU, Cross Colours, and Rocawear. It's a complex question that can't be given due justice in an 82-minute film, but there's enough info here for the audience to pull at any number of threads to try to unravel it.
"Urban young people are always attracted to or addicted to fashion because it is expression of aspiration," Talley says. "... Aspirational is: Can you go into that store and buy that brand?"
That brand — that aspirational brand — as we see later, ultimately happens to not be the urban brands that hip-hop itself birthed.
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