Fashion by Jamaican designer Biggie.
Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
MUSIC AND fashion go hand in hand. Wherever music lives, fashion resides next door. Hip Hop and R&B artistes seem to have latched on to this concept and are milking it dry.
They have jumped from the CD players straight into the wardrobes of their fans. Long gone are the days when the only piece of clothing endorsed by their favourite artiste a fan could own was a measly T-shirt or bandanna.
Better days are here. Or so it seems.
These days almost every major hip hop artiste and a few R&B entertainers who are household names have a clothing line under their belt that makes up the ever-expanding urban street wear market.
Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs is enjoying huge success with his multi-million dollar clothing line 'Sean Jean'.
Co-founder of Def Jam Records, Russell Simmons, is one of the pioneers of this marriage between music and fashion with his popular line, 'Phat Farm'. Nelly has 'Vokal'. Busta Rhymes owns 'Bushi Designs'. Jennifer Lopez is hot with 'J.Lo'. Sisqo mans 'Dragon Collection'.
Rapper Sean 'Jay-Z' Carter and Damon Dash, who is the chief executive office (CEO) of Jigga's 'Roca-Fella' Records, spearhead Rocawear. The Wu Tang clan is responsible for 'Wu Wear'. Outkast, Ruff Ryders and Snoop Dogg all have self-titled clothing lines. In July of this year the onslaught will be heightened with the introduction of 'Icewear' and 'Shady' sportswear, manned by rapper turned actors, Ice-T and Marshall 'Eminem' Mathers respectively. Just like the 'beat', the list goes on.
This tight squeeze between music and fashion is nothing new. However, time has made the bond more intimate. It is argued that hip hop is the child of dancehall music. However, lately the child seems to be training the parent and continues to set trends that the native genre cannot resist imitating.
Since the fashion bug has bitten and successfully infected the hip-hop market, much like the current wave of SARS (Severe Acute Respitory Syndrome), it is only a matter of time for this fashion 'illness' to reach the shores of Jamaica.
The dancehall was once known for its unique style. These days culminate in what can be dubbed an overseas invasion as the stage shows are flooded with every 'name brand' designer clothing that can roll of the tip of the tongue. Versace, Armani,
Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and the like. Once you can name it, then somebody in the dancehall has claimed it.
Except for the family of deceased reggae icon Bob Marley, no reggae artistes have taken that big step toward sewing on their labels on some 'threads'. However, they have taken a few baby steps in that direction.
A few deejays have endorsement deals with overseas clothing lines and many others are provided with clothes from these urban street-wear firms in exchange for free promotion.
"It is easier for the urban street-wear companies to offer free products to the artistes to wear and promote for them instead of getting into the contractual agreements," reasoned Jeremy Harding, the producer and manager of Sean Paul.
The platinum-selling Sean Paul is numbered among the local acts that boast a contractual agreement with a clothing line. Harding told The Sunday Gleaner that in January of this year the deejay signed a six-month endorsement deal with Ecko Unlimited.
Harding said under the agreement, Sean had to do some print advertisements, which were featured in several entertainment magazines such as Vibe, Source and Complex, the last of which is a subsidiary of Ecko Unlimited.
This deal is testament to the impact native acts are making overseas. "They contacted us and came with a proposal which outlined the amount of money they were willing to put up and the amount of clothes they were willing to provide and we settled with them," outlined Harding.
Also enjoying the luxury of wearing free clothing is Damion 'Baby Cham' Beckett. Although he is not signed to Iceberg, the clothing line supplies him with their latest threads. The verbal deal was born after personnel from the street wear manufacturers saw the deejay sporting their gear in the video Tables Will Turn, a collaboration with urban sex symbol Foxy Brown.
"From there they just pick it up and keep a link from then on. It good too, cause at least yuh nuh affi buy," Cham said with a chuckle.
The hardcore harmonisers TOK also enjoyed a similar instance to that enjoyed by Baby Cham. In the late 90s, when the group was just coming into their 'ackee', they were approached by Jamaican born Lennox Barnes, CEO of the Meoshe clothing line, after a performance at the Century Club in Los Angeles (L.A).
Group member Xavier said at one point, every new design of Meoshe that hit the racks was on their backs as Mr. Barnes ensured that they had a sample. However, in recent times things have slowed down a few notches. "When we go to L.A. he makes sure we are alright, but now is not like first time when he used to Fed Ex stuff to us, because now we are all over the place," said Xavier. These are just a few of the local artistes who enjoy wearing free threads. However, many of these artistes desire more than just adorning themselves with clothes that bear the name of some foreign urban street wear company. Many have their eyes on their slice of the fashion pie. They have been seriously contemplating the move of having a microphone in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. Amongst the few who have really been pressing toward the fashion calling is Baby Cham.
"It deh deh, still inna di making, ah jus time. Dis summer there will be nothing to purchase, but there will be promotional pieces that will be given away at stage shows and so on," reasoned Cham like a proud father would about his brainchild, which he hails by the name 'Wow Wear'.
'Mr. Wow' revealed that the Bob Marley merchandise under the banner 'Catch A Fire' had a significant impact on his confidence, which in the end proved to be shove he needed to take his clothing line from the realms of his brain and on to the shelves.
"Normally when you see it you think you can't do it until somebody inna yuh vicinity accomplish it," commented Cham.
Xavier added that even before TOK started sporting the Meoshe gear, they had it in mind to launch out into the deep with their own clothing line which they planned on dubbing 303. "Due to the fact that everything started to happen for us musically we had to shift our focus," he said.
Nonetheless, he said that the group is still pregnant with the expectation of finally seeing their dream in stores worldwide, but the time is not yet right for the delivery. "We still have it at the back of our minds, but when we do it we want it to be just as good or better than the major names out there," he said.
While TOK is not sure if they will stick with the 303 banner they initially intended to name their line, Cham is locked on to his Wow Wear tag. The deejay says that business wise, he wants to learn to creep before thinking of competing with the big boys in the 100 metre dash.
"We ago tek it one step at a time. We nah jump the gun, we jus a tek it slow. Right now the aim is not to think about the profitable side; now ah jus fi promotion fi di fans and mi fren dem. Jus fi know sey you a wear you own tings and Mama Jenny can get up and put on a Wow Wear, ah jus the vibes ah it dat," reasoned Cham with merriment. Harding also revealed that the notion of owning their own clothing line is an idea that has tickled the minds in his camp; however, they are a bit reserved at the moment. "We are trying to focus on making him (Sean Paul) the biggest and best artiste he can be Just try to increase his popularity and presence and then use that as a springboard," Harding stated. While the market for these kinds of gear is spreading like wildfire overseas, not every clothing line will be successful. Just ask Snoop Dogg, who has re-launched his clothing line twice, opining that it has not hit the street the way he envisioned. Therefore, though it is a good venture, complications can arise in the indigenous market, especially since 'yardies' are so foreign-minded. "It would be very hard to convince them to support a local brand. You would have to do the reverse to get it to work out here, that is, 'bus' it abroad first," emphasised Harding.
Complications will arise, as with any business venture, so the scissors-wielding dancehall fashion designer Biggie believes that the melding of dancehall and fashion can definitely stand the test of time. "The fans who go for the artiste want a piece of memorabilia of the artiste. A good designer and a proper marketing strategy is all that is needed," opined Biggie.
He continued: "It's a good investment. We jus' need fi si one Jamaican artiste step up and make the other artistes start wearing their brand instead of Sean Jean or ah odda brand name weh nuh really care bout you."
Once the clothes are stitched, the other obstacle is making them available to the public at large. This should not prove to be menacing if the marketing of the product gains the notoriety needed to create a buzz.
"If a person decides to license their name and start a clothing line, once it is marketed properly and the demand is there we would carry it," reasoned Michael Ammar Junior, the director of Ammar's retail stores.
Until then, keep your eyes peeled.
