Friday 3 February 2012

Why Urban Clothing Is A Frustrating Business To Be In!

Why Urban Clothing Is A Frustrating Business To Be In!

I have been selling urban clothing for a while now, and love pretty much every bit of it. The connections I've made the new artist I've been able to help promote, all of it has been fantastic. However there is still one aspect of selling hip hop clothing that still frustrates me anytime it crops up, and that is explaining my niche to people when they ask what I do.

You would think this would be an easy question to answer, however, to someone who is not familiar with the subculture, they think they have it figured out when they really have no clue. I'll give an example. I usually tell people, "oh, I'm an urban clothing retailer" the response is almost always the same, "so you sell clothes that are two sizes to big?."  or "so you only sell baggy jeans and hoodies, I don't wear that type of clothing?" ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

I realise that over the years hip hop has taken a couple of knocks and some may even say it hasn't always presented itself in the right light. Well okay fine but if that was the past, what about now? Has urban clothing not evolved into something more presentable globally? I believe it has!

So to those who honestly think that urban clothing is nothing more than oversized fashion I always challenge them to look around, not just at my site, but at others in the market. This is the only way to truly see that urban clothing and hip hop music is a culture, and like in true culture is is always evolving and that it is always progressing. I also generally let them know that because it is a progressing culture, that trying to label it as one thing says more about them as an individual than it does about the culture.

What are your thoughts? What frustrates you the most about urban clothing? I look forward to hearing some responses.