Hype Culture

Clothing and fashion have kept it’s reputation and continued to be a big part of today’s world. Clothes continue to be a way to express personality and emotions.

Clothing is a huge deal at ASL too. ASL students have the ability to choose what clothes they want and aren’t forced to wear uniforms. Before last year, the dress code restricted students from wearing certain types of clothing, but with the new attire policy students have much more freedom in what they can wear.

At ASL, the evolution of clothing is something that has changed rapidly and still is changing today. One year The Gap could be the hottest clothes brand and the next year it could be Supreme. In today’s world, brands like Supreme, Stone Island, and Bape rule the world of hype.

The world of hype is a culture influenced by money and social media. Although some  ASL students aren’t interested in this culture, there is a large majority of students at ASL who are. This culture all depends on money,  if you can’t afford the clothing you can’t be a part of it.

These brands consistently release clothes that buyers all around the world and of all genders like. These brands are considered so hype that they can price shirts for around £100, and sweatshirts can go up to £400. They get their hype reputation by creating limited amounts of clothes for each “drop.”

Supreme was established in New York City in 1994. The brand started off as a skateboarding brand but has slowly migrated into more of a clothing brand. Supreme was created by English businessman James Jebbia.

The New York brand’s biggest hit has been the box logo. A Supreme box logo is a t-shirt or sweatshirt with a Supreme box in the middle. As simple as the clothing sounds, the pieces of clothing are resold for anywhere from £200-1,000.

The reason for them being resold for so much is the fact that when Supreme release these hype pieces of clothing, they only release a few, meaning only a select few get them. Since the clothes are so limited the popularity of them increases. Supreme consistently pleases the buyer and keeps its hype reputation.

A Bathing Ape nicknamed Bape is a Japanese clothing company founded by Nigo in Ura-Harajuku in 1993. Bape is a very street style brand that’s known for its iconic ape logo. Bape keeps its hype by doing many different collaborations. A few companies Bape has done collaborations with are Adidas, Comme des Garçons, and Pepsi. The Japanese company also keeps its clothes hype by keeping them very limited.

Stone Island is an Italian brand founded by Massimo Osti in 1982. The Italian company releases very simply but popular pieces of clothing. The prices for Stone Island are much more reasonable and affordable compared to other hype brands for buyers but the clothing isn’t as rare as brands like Supreme and Bape.

Stone Island mass produces almost all their pieces of clothing making it much easier to get for the buyers. For a t-shirt from Stone Island, it costs around £50-60 which compared to a supreme box logo is very cheap.

So why do students at ASL wear these expensive clothes? “I just like the brands to be honest,” said seventh-grader Ozan Cetin. “It’s the culture and I’m into it.”

Seventh-grader Samih Sawiris had a very different answer from Cetin. “It’s more than I like the clothing and It’s not all about the hype because I wouldn’t say I only focus on the hype clothing. I go to other brands too.”

What makes hypebeast like these popular clothing? The style? The brand? “This might sound really bad but the brand,” said Cetin. “Sometimes if it looks nice though I’ll buy it.”

These brands have so much street credit that if you wear them you are more respected in the middle school. This leads to a lot of competition by mostly teenagers but some adults. During a Supreme drop on Thursday, the line outside a Supreme store can be around 6-7 blocks long. Not only do people wait in line for over six hours, they camp out overnight. These Supreme lovers set up tents at night next to the store so that by the timeof the drop, they are first in line.

Although these brands are very popular, ASL students only wear hype clothing but everyday clothing.

About Spencer Towfighi ('23)

Features Editor (2017-18)

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