This is Not Fashion: Streetwear Past, Present and Future

This is the story of streetwear. King ADZ and Wilma Stone recount how a long line of subcultural movements have been incorporated into a multi-billion-dollar global industry and taken over both the high street and high-end fashion. Starting from the building blocks of repurposed sportswear, workwear and combat-wear, they explain just how it is that a revolutionary sartorial trend has evolved to encompass a vast range of disparate tribes, offering a powerful sense of belonging and identity to all.

The story begins in 1972, in Jersey City, USA, with the birth of the first ever streetwear shop, Trash and Vaudeville. The journey then encompasses punk, Ivy League preppies, the hip-hop kings and queens of Harlem, the dresser/casual movement born out of British football culture, the skater scene of California, the paninari scooter-brats of Milan, and much more. We are shown how streetwear, worn with integrity and swagger, has transcended culture, race, gender and age to become a lasting worldwide phenomenon.