Skinny Jeans Kids and other current trends people are upset over

Skinny Jeans Kids - a term we use at AT&T for the kids who keep coming into the DC stores and stealing our iPhone displays - Get a life you fucking fuck fucks! And I digress...

The real point of this story is the backlash at the individuals in the Hip Hop community who have started wearing clothes that fit and rocking not so conservative colors and hairstyles. I've read two blog posts since yesterday - one saying "let them wear what they want in peace" and another saying "any rapper (Black rappers that is) embracing mainstream fashion trends influenced by hipsters, punks and high-end fashion designers (just say White people please) is a fag".

I wanted to avoid being extremely opinionated on this blog but I couldn't hold it in anymore. Prior to 9/7/07, I was extremely opposed to wearing jeans slimmer than relaxed fit because I knew they would show off some curves that I wasn't really trying to show. It wasn't until a female friend coerced me that day (I remember because it was my birthday) into trying on a pair of skinny slouch Levi's. Them joints fit great! And since they were men's jeans, I didn't have the coochie cutter effect going on. So I was sold. You'll probably never catch me in an actual pair of skinny jeans because I think they only look good on skinny people. I've also had an abstract patterned haircut and I'd do it again if I didn't work at AT&T.

Now that I cater to the fitted style, I find myself defending this blast from the 80s look for myself and others very often. I get a pass from women, however because "I'm a girl" and apparently I should be wearing fitted clothes to show off my figure. Why do straight women always want to femme me up? Anyway, men who wear clothes that fit aren't gay - not all of them anyway. The dudes who started Hip Hop (I'm talking late 70s/early 80s) wore fitted clothes but since then have accepted a baggier look. Fine but clothes don't necessarily make the person. I have several gay male friends who look like they fit the police description of a Black male criminal and they wouldn't jump in bed with a woman to save their lives. As for the unconservative hairstyles and colors - it's refreshing to see people (especially in conservative DC) doing more than roller wraps, locs and caesars and wearing colors outside of black, white, and gray.

Fashion trends in the Black community have always been influenced by the mainstream fashion community at-large, which is pretty much made up of White people. Rappers and the fans who could afford it were rocking designer labels and skinny jeans 25 years ago, then there was a mass influx of rappers who entered the game with an awareness and concern for issues more pressing than fasshion. Then Puffy ushered in "bling" and all the consciousness and Africa medallions went out the window. Now, instead of wearing gold chains and Gucci sneakers, bammas were rocking platinum chains and Versace glasses. Yes we had come about five sizes away from skinny jeans, but still influenced by White fashion designers nonetheless.

Now as the first decade of the 21st Century draws to a close, we see 80s fashion and music not only taking hold in mainstream culture but also causing a transcendence of musical genres and socio-economic groups. The problem is that people who are upset about the direction that music and fashion are taking are just getting older and are set in their ways (kind of like our parents). How soon they forget how their parents would talk about when music was good whenever they heard us listening to Rap or Contemporary R&B of the 80s and 90s. How soon they forget about their parents not agreeing with them about why they need a pair of Jordans or telling them to pull their pants up. I haven't forgotten and that's why I can't even be mad. News Flash: Mainstream music never reverted back to being what our parents consider as being good when they were younger - it's not going to happen now.

Many of your favorite artists (and mine, too) from back in the day are still making music, you just won't hear or see them in heavy rotation if they're getting airplay at all. You can still wear YOUR clothes baggy and keep the colors and hairstyles conservative and the people whose style is the complete opposite won't think twice about commenting on it. So why do you?