These Are Hip-Hop's Realest Fashion Styles

From bucket hats to full-body tattoos, hip-hop fashion changes like the wind. Here's our guide to some of the most pivotal and influential trends.

Hip-hop fashion has evolved at a rate of knots since the sound first emerged from New York City's Bronx neighbourhood in the middle of the 1970s and styles have ranged from city to city, coast to coast and scene to scene. Our handy cut-out-and-keep guide to hip-hop trends focuses on those that have stood out most, those that have never gone away and those that continue, from time to time, to make comebacks. Will Chance The Rapper's dungaree overalls stand the test of time like these have?

The b-boy years

The first hip-hop uniform was worn by rappers, DJs, breakdancers and graffiti artists alike. The early '80s b-boy look, which emerged on the east coast, comprised of Kangol bucket hats, chunky street-tuff gold chains and name-plate necklaces, shell-toe trainers with 'phat' laces, and black (sometimes leather) tracksuit tops.

Sportswear companies such as Le Coq Sportif, Adidas and a couple of other now-defunct brands ruled the streets. Run-D.M.C. probably wore it best, but The Fat Boys, Ultramagnetic MCs, Schoolly D, LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane and many, many more also rocked the look.

Black pride

After a few twists and turns that took in an early gangster rap style inspired by Latin American gang culture and the preppy flower-power look of De La Soul, hip-hop fashion became entwined with a growing interest in black pride and socially conscious hip-hop.

Towards the end of the '80s hip-hop acts such as Public Enemy, Eric B And Rakim, Brand Nubian, Main Source, Queen Latifah, KRS-One, Salt-N-Pepa and more began celebrating their African heritage, as well as revisiting black nationalist movements such as the Black Panthers. Paramilitary fatigues mixed with the black nationalist colours of yellow, red, black and green, and even the jewellery took on meaning, with Salt-N-Pepa's gold door-knocker earrings connected to Africanism.

Ghetto fabulous

Next came hip-hop's most ostentatious trend, which outstrips even the Courvoisier-guzzling bling period of the early '00s for flashiness. In a style that suggested extreme wealth, in the mid-'90s hip-hop's biggest stars started wearing increasingly extravagant attire.

Sean Combs (aka Puff Daddy, aka Puffy, aka P Diddy, aka Diddy, aka Love) turned the trend into something straight-up slick and called it ghetto fabulous, but he, Snoop Dogg, Notorious B.I.G. and 2-Pac began by mimicking the old-school gangster look of Al Capone and the prohibition era's most notorious. That means fedoras and bowler hats, double-breasted suits and alligator-skin shoes. Snappy.

The baggy years

After the concepts and show-off years, hip-hop fashion simplified in the mid-to-late '90s. Out went suits and uniforms and in came low-slung baggy jeans, snapbacks, work boots, puffer jackets, Tommy Hilfiger threads and – a hip-hop perennial – sportswear.

The Wu-Tang Clan rocked this look, as did Gang Starr, Missy Elliot and others. Later on, Dirty South rappers such as Nelly and Ludacris would add do-rags and basketball tops, while female rappers Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown eschewed the baggy style altogether.

Open Thread: This Week in Style News

Each week, the Open Thread newsletter will offer a look from across The New York Times at the forces that shape the dress codes we share, with Vanessa Friedman as your personal shopper. The latest newsletter appears here. To receive it in your inbox, register here.

Hello and happy Friday. It’s been quite a week.

First there was the red carpet revolution at the Golden Globes. You might have noticed a difference in our coverage and slide shows (no name-checking of brands) and I’d be really curious to hear what you thought.

Then there was the furor over Michael Wolff’s book on the Trump administration, “Fire and Fury,” with its many juicy, controversial revelations, including the astonishing tidbit about how, exactly, the president achieves his hairstyle.

I’ll let you discover that for yourself, but suffice it to say in involves scalp reduction surgery, and then an elaborate comb-up-and-over.

Amid it all, understandably, a genuine piece of fashion news got a little lost: the first designer appointment of the new year. Diane von Furstenberg named Nathan Jenden her new chief design officer (I know: C.D.O.; brings up strange, recessionary nightmares). He starts with a bang — and not a lot of time to settle in — at New York Fashion Week next month.

Jenden, who is British and went to Central St. Martin’s and the Royal College of Art, has a history with DVF. He was creative director of the brand from 2001 to 2010 — he and Von Furstenberg used to take their runway bow together — when he left to concentrate on his own line, which launched in 2005. That didn’t go so well, and most recently he was creative director of Bebe.

Meanwhile, DVF also couldn’t settle down without him, going through three designers in the last seven years.

Now both sides are older, wiser and have presumably realized what they missed without the other — which is probably a good thing in these days of crazy designer churn. A lot of fashion success is dependent on relationships (designer with founder, designer with C.E.O., designer with design studio, brand with consumers) and it takes time to build that kind of trust and understanding.

Anyway, enough with the lectures! Let’s see how it all plays out next month.

For now, I offer the following reads: Amber Tamblyn’s searingly honest Op-Ed about getting dressed for an awards ceremony; an inside look on how the experts pack for the men’s wear season; and the latest, weirdest slogan clothes. Have a good weekend!

Your Style Questions, Answered

Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or Twitter. Questions are edited and condensed.

Q: My son is in college in Maine, and the temperature is frequently below zero. It seems like every woman is swathed in an ankle-length black puffer coat from November to March, so why do men have so few choices in outerwear that is knee length or longer? Have you come across any knee-length down coats for men? — Amy, Pelham, N.Y.

A: It’s true: Though dress coats hit at the knee and great coats (especially those that are military-inspired in heavy wool) can be even longer, in general men got the short end of the stick in the coat-length sweepstakes. It’s pretty clear this is one of those sexist fashion things — a long coat is somehow seen as not manly, unless maybe you live in Russia and it is fur. Because real men…have weatherproof legs? Or something.

Given that all sorts of gender rules are loosening up when it comes to clothing these days, however, a warmer time may be on the horizon. In the meantime, however, I asked Matthew Schneier, our deputy fashion critic (currently in Milan at the shows) for his advice. Here’s what he said:

“Where men’s outerwear is concerned, even the hardiest coats seem to come only to somewhere above the knee. To test the theory, I looked around at a range of brands known for their tough winter-wear (the North Face, Canada Goose, Moncler, Duvetica, Stone Island) and struck out at every one. Even L.L. Bean (which knows something about Maine winters, being headquartered there!) didn’t offer much that dropped below the waist. I suspect it’s that floor-length outerwear is pretty unwieldy, especially where there’s snow and slush on the ground, and many men (at the expense of their body temperatures) chafe at the idea of something long enough to be mistaken for women’s wear.

My solution, for what it’s worth, is to pile on the underlayers. Thermal-wear has come a long way since the days of heavy waffle weaves in one color (though I love those, too). I swear by Uniqlo’s Heattech line, which I wear, tops and bottoms, basically all winter. They’re thinner, softer and warmer than their predecessors, cheaper by far than a new coat, and they disappear under clothes. Friends report that there was a run on them at the New York Uniqlo stores last week when the weather was wretched here. I wouldn’t know; I order mine, as can you, online.” — VANESSA FRIEDMAN