Pop Culture Subculture: Streetwear

I’ve always been interested in subcultures within pop culture. I’ve been a consumer and follower of many pop culture trends. One of the trends that have caught my eye and resembles my style the most is streetwear. I follow a few streetwear channels on YouTube and recently noticed that when I was in St. George at Rue21, you can add Zumies and several other mall stores to the list as well, that streetwear seems to be mainstream now.  

If you’re not sure what streetwear is, Wikipedia defines it as a style of casual clothing that became global in the 1990s. It grew from New York hip-hop fashion and Californian surf culture to encompass elements of sportswear, punk, skateboarding, and Japanese street fashion. As I dove into a bit more research, it looks like techwear which according to Ox Street Magazine was first seen as early as 2006 to 2007, and cyperpunk, think the Blade Runner and The Matrix trilogy films, can also be considered offshoots of streetwear and can also include hypebeast culture as well. 

The streetwear YouTubers that I follow consider streetwear to be layered and oversized. That includes hoodies, jerseys, oversized t-shirts, cargo pants, sneakers, and boots. With that being said, streetwear is an evolving aesthetic, so there’s not necessarily one way to do streetwear. It seems to me that streetwear has become more mainstream now because the fashion of the 1990s has circled back around again and also because the world is much smaller than it used to be and getting Japanese streetwear inspiration and clothing is easier than it ever has been. 

I’ll add a few YouTube videos here for you to get a better idea of what streetwear and Japanese streetwear is like and how to style a streetwear outfit.