“Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick.” — Bruce Lee

Way back in 1998-1999, we started using a phrase that was not popular at that time “urban clothing” and it’s strange that many people use that phrase when looking for hip hop clothing. It’s weird to us how “Hip Hop” almost became a bad word and they had to start using other phrases like R&B for hip hop music, well we don’t like to pigeon hole stuff.  In our opinion, R&B “Rhythm and Blues” was definitely not rap or hip hop but we suppose people that do not want to be associated or would not listen to rap may prefer something ambiguous like R&B. Suddenly, “urban clothing” (or street wear clothing) meant hip hop clothing and not clothing that would be worn in an urban environment such as inner cities but was of origin such as skate, surf or snow.

Streetwear, another ambiguous term that has suddenly come back into fashion again, but what the hell does it mean? Well, our interpretation of streetwear is a style that sprung up out of hip hop in the 80’s, mixed with skatewear but the main feature was the collaboration of colour of t-shirt stock or t-shirt design to match the colours used by trainer manufactures and that later passed to caps and beanies, however it was mainly the matching of colours. What do we know? Styles, design, cuts and fashion are always changing, bits get left behind and styles and looks are combined in an attempt to create something new but at the end of the end of the day a pair of jeans is just a pair of jeans…. Maybe.