Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion

by Sowmya Krishnamurthy

Overview

This “first comprehensive anthology of the marriage between hip-hop and luxury fashion” (The Cut) draws on exclusive interviews to tell the story of the hip-hop artists, designers, stylists, and unsung heroes who fought the power and reinvented style around the world over the last fifty years.

Fashion Killa is a classic tale of a modern renaissance; of an exclusionary industry gate-crashed by innovators; of impresarios—Sean “Diddy” Combs, Dapper Dan, Virgil Abloh—hoisting hip-hop from the streets to the stratosphere; of supernovas—Lil’ Kim, Cardi B, and Kimora Lee Simmons—allying with kingmakers—Anna Wintour, Donatella Versace, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren; of traditionalist fashion houses—Louis Vuitton, Fendi, and Saint Laurent—transformed into temples of rap gods.

Journalist Sowmya Krishnamurthy explores the connections between the DIY hip-hop scene and the exclusive upper-echelons of high fashion. She discusses the sociopolitical forces that defined fashion and tracks the influence of music and streetwear on the most exclusive (and exclusionary) luxury brands. “An essential book about US culture” (Booklist, starred review), Fashion Killa commemorates the contributions of hip-hop to music, fashion, and our society at large.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982176327
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	10/10/2023
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	80,840
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Sowmya Krishnamurthy is a music journalist and pop culture expert. Her work has been featured in Time, Rolling Stone, Complex, XXL, Playboy, Highsnobiety, and NPR. She is a graduate of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and lives in New York City. Fashion Killa is her first book.

Editorial Reviews

10/06/2023

Impeccably researched and highly detailed, music and culture journalist Krishnamurthy's debut title impresses with its breadth of scope. Spanning from hip-hop's beginnings and tracing through its rise to eventual supremacy by the 2020s, it illustrates how intricately this music genre is interwoven with fashion. From the streets to haute couture runways, the book draws upon interviews with musicians, designers, and consumers to demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between dress and popular music. Backmatter includes an extensive bibliography and index, plus a timeline of Kanye West's discriminatory comments and behavior and the resulting impact on his fashion partnerships during the autumn of 2022. The book does not include photographs of the clothing it describes or the artists it highlights, which places it more in the category of an academic resource than popular reading. Casual readers might find the amount of information challenging without visual representation of the subject. However, those looking for a full treatment of the topic will find it here. VERDICT This deep-dive into the relationship between hip-hop and fashion is recommended for libraries with serious devotees or researchers.—Shannon Titas

Library Journal

★ 2023-06-08
A cogent study of hip-hop’s outsized influence on fashion trends.

The link between hip-hop and high fashion is so tight that many consider them part of the same package. In this fast-paced, deeply researched history, Krishnamurthy chronicles how and why that deep bond continues today. The music journalist, known for her work in Rolling Stone, New York magazine, Vibe, and Essence, deconstructs the connection all the way back to Harlem-based custom tailor and designer Dapper Dan in the late 1980s. “A custom Dapper Dan ’fit could run into the tens of thousands of dollars,” writes Krishnamurthy, so price was a barrier to entry when hip-hop was still young (and broke).” But with success and increasing paychecks came distinctive, aspirational fashion. “Real hip-hop had skill and style—and wore Dapper Dan,” writes the author. Krishnamurthy follows that thread through the intertwined journeys of hip-hop’s music and fashion, with fascinating detours into the crews who “terrorized high-end retail in New York City by boosting Polo Ralph Lauren”; the erroneous viral rumors about Tommy Hilfiger, the "white designer who faced inaccurate accusations about bigotry”; Kanye West’s first trip to the Paris fashion shows; and the power of Young Thug’s decision to wear an Alessandro Trincone dress on the cover of one of his mixtapes. Krishnamurthy peppers the storyline of how hip-hop fashion transformed into lucrative brands with her own experiences, including her stint as one of Sean Combs’ assistants at Bad Boy Records. Though that job didn’t last long, it does help explain how the author is able to so effortlessly weave together tales of music and fashion and history. She lived a lot of it, and what she didn’t experience firsthand, she absorbed from research involving a wide array of musicians, designers, scholars, and business execs who did.

Exciting and exhaustive, this fun hip-hop history explains what your favorite rappers are wearing and why.

Kirkus Reviews

Readers are lucky that this brilliant, shining gem of a book exists.... Along with its many nuanced arguments and observations, the book is a stunning historical record of years, people, places, runway shows, brands, and evolutions that should be studied. An essential book about U.S. culture.”
—Booklist

“A cogent study of hip-hop’s outsized influence on fashion trends...The link between hip-hop and high fashion is so tight that many consider them part of the same package. In this fast-paced, deeply researched history, Krishnamurthy chronicles how and why that deep bond continues today. ... Exciting and exhaustive, this fun hip-hop history explains what your favorite rappers are wearing and why.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“The first comprehensive anthology of the marriage between hip-hop and luxury fashion, mapping out well-examined evidence of the two entities being inextricably linked.”
—The Cut

“Krishnamurthy cements herself as a necessary historian for the culture.”
—Paper Magazine

“Fashion Killa is a love letter to hustlers, innovators, and people who didn’t abide by the rules. Krishnamurthy’s comprehensive work gives the history of hip-hop its due, recognizing the elevated contributions of the icons, designers, and rappers who came together to claim a place in a culture.”
—Dapper Dan, Fashion Innovator

“Fashion Killa is super important because we are the culture that transcends into fashion. Rappers motivate designers to make something dope. Hip-hop and fashion is a perfect marriage!”
—Raekwon, Rapper and author of From Staircase to Stage

“Sharp and engaging contribution to fashion, art, and storytelling. A must read for anyone who adores and respects fashion's contribution to mankind.”
—Slick Rick, Storyteller, and Fashion Icon

“Sowmya Krishnamurthy’s powerful and meticulously told deep dive into hip-hop’s culture of showing out is a vibrant and historic telling of a groundbreaking story. Fashion Killa captures the visionaries, misfits, and rule breakers who revolutionized the worlds of fashion, innovation, and luxury. This is not just the American dream but a global story.”
—Vikki Tobak, author of Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History and Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop.

“Fashion Killa is a luxury quilt of hip-hop journalism sewn with gilded floss. In Sowmya’s skillful sartorial hand, the stories of fashion icons and upstart rappers appear in a two-way mirror, revealing the line between haute and street as a fabrication born out of aspiration, and the thread tying hip-hop to fashion as inevitable and durable indeed.”
—Dan Charnas, New York Times bestselling author of Dilla Time and The Big Payback

From the Publisher