Shirt Kings

"Pioneers of Hip Hop Fashion" By Edwin PHADE Sacasa & Alan Ket, Dokument press, Årsta, 2013. First edition. Text in English. 144 pages. 28,6 x 22,2 cm. Condition : Good (Traces on the cover including that of a label. Edges a little bent).

Out of stock

We are in June 1986, in Jamaica in Queens, a popular district of New York. 4 graphic designers found and opened the Shirt Kings boutique. The idea of ​​King Phade, Nike, Dean and Kasheme? Paint on clothing the graffiti that flourishes in the streets and on the trains of New York City. It’s fashionable for Puma’s Clydes, Lee jeans, and the crew is all the rage by customizing total hip-hop looks with spray paint or airbrush. The young Flavor Flav, Jay-Z, Nas or Salt’n’Pepa are among their loyal customers. Evolving outside the institutional circuits of King Phade, Nike, Dean and Kasheme painted T-shirts like others used the canvas of paintings. Pioneers, they helped market the first graffiti (at a time when Keith Haring had just opened the Pop Shop). They also gave letters of nobility to Hip Hop fashion, before its democratization by brands like Fubu and Karl Kani.
A book that traces the history of this fantastic adventure, a total dive into the beginnings of street-wear. It’s the street that speaks.