A New Take on Luxury Streetwear
In 2000, luxury streetwear was all about whose name and logo was printed across the right panel of your top, or monogrammed across the entirety of your garment. In 2024, Millennials and Gen Z are redefining their idea of luxury to center around the production and styling of a product rather than elevating recognizable names.
Despite the broadened scale for garments that we deem luxury streetwear, at least one of these four specific factors can be found in all garments that have successful sales:
TEXTURE
Everyone can remember a time when, from the first touch, they fell in love with a garment. Gen Z is leaning into that exact feeling. Fur, silk, woven, and velvet fabrics are a few of the clearest examples of luxury textures in streetwear, but now we see these textures combined with more familiar fabrics, such as denim jeans or cotton sweatpants, instead of always being dressed with heels or slacks. Textures that fall into luxury streetwear lean into quiet, rich comfort in a way that has not been previously attempted or promoted.
COLOR/PATTERN
Colors like gold and purple are traditionally seen as luxurious, but streetwear has broadened the realm of luxury to include unorthodox colors, or re-innovated patterns. This is a sure fire way of differentiating from the norm. It allows streetwear enthusiasts to lean into their personal preferences, and consequently feel more like themselves. It even allows more cultural-based prints, like what we see on Chinese silks or African wax prints, to receive the recognition and admiration they deserve.
BLING
The two previous categories have clearly illustrated that the main product of witnessing new collections and designers is that we get to celebrate modern cultural expressions and identities. But through and through, when we see grills, layered chains, or expensive gems styled with an outfit, we experience a different variation of luxury and we have the hip hop industry to thank for this. The popularization and widespread impact of hip hop not only shines a light on the trendsetting nature of Black culture, but the value of representation. Gen Z is reimagining the “ideal” to reflect all youth subcultures rather than high-brow Hollywood and White depictions of wealth
It’s clear that Gen Z has redefined luxury to be relative, but in doing so, they’ve disposed of the gatekeeping culture of luxury high fashion.
That’s exactly why streetwear resonates so deeply with cultures of color – it’s a platform for representation.