Hip Hop Aesthetics

With over 25 years of celebrating Black culture, VIBE continues to embrace the soulful roots that chronicle the artists, celebrities, sounds, fashion​, and events—from hip-hop and R&B to the modern-day converging music landscape.

Vibe Vixen is a magazine geared towards female readers of Vibe Magazine that covered fashion, beauty, dating, entertainment, and sex.

Fashion, Style & Popular Culture is a peer-reviewed journal specifically dedicated to the area of fashion scholarship's interfacings with popular culture.

This book traces the fascinating unfolding of hip hop fashion from its roots to the present day. It explores how hip hop transitioned from "the hood" to the runway; how race, ethnicity, and culture played into commercialism; how celebrities impacted the fashion industry; and what ultimately led major department stores to jump on the urban bandwagon.

Fresh Fly Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop Style draws on the experiences and memories of those who were there, from a foreword by Slick Rick, to interviews with Disco Fever club owner Sal Abbatiello and designers Dapper Dan and April Walker, to chapters from Vibe stylist Emil Wilbekin and former editor of The Source Kim Osorio. Topics cover the range of hip hop's influential style over the past half century, tracing the evolution from early hip hop style, born of aspiration, individuality, and practicality to contemporary fashion steeped in luxury brands. Hip hop style is a local story, told through spotlights on Times Square as an early fashion space, as well as an international phenomenon, shown in the prominence of hip hop fashion leaders on red carpets.

Featuring essays and interviews from scholars and cultural figures, portraits by contemporary photographers, archival imagery, and a historical exploration into the multifaceted and often overlooked significance of nameplate jewelry, The Nameplate is a tribute to the people who make, wear, and cherish it.

Journalist Sowmya Krishnamurthy explores the connections between the DIY hip-hop scene and the exclusive upper-echelons of high fashion. She discusses the sociopolitical forces that defined fashion and tracks the influence of music and streetwear on the most exclusive (and exclusionary) luxury brands.

Spanning the history of hip-hop jewelry, from the 1980s to today, Ice Cold: A Hip-Hop Jewelry History is a stunning compilation of storytelling and visuals. Hundreds of extraordinary images of every major hip-hop artist on record celebrate how "Ice" has become a proclamation of identity and self-expression. Starting with Run-DMC's gold Adidas pendants and Eric B. & Rakim's ostentatious dookie rope chains and Mercedes medallions, the jewelry then transforms from street style into a booming design culture.