The Hub Entertainment Watch List: Fresh Dressed
Hip-hop music and culture began emerging towards the end of the 1970s and the 1980s and has since evolved into a global phenomenon. When thinking about how hip-hop culture has influenced society, one area where the results are clear include the fashion industry. Black artists and designers began to dominate mainstream fashion culture and disrupted the industry causing traditional designers to access what was happening. The 2015 Sundance Film Festival selection, Fresh Dressed, traces the history of hip-hop fashion from its inception to its rise as a billion-dollar global industry.
Fresh Dressed is an 88-minute film that features a combination of archival materials and in-depth interviews with rappers, designers, and industry insiders who share their thoughts on the importance of hip-hop fashion. The film features interviews with famous faces such as Sean “Love” Combs, Nas, Swizz Beatz, André Leon Talley, Marc Ecko, Dapper Dan, Karl Kani and a variety of other sources. Fresh Dressed is a unique documentary because it details how clothing choices changed over time – starting with slavery – and going into contemporary times. The film is also relatable because it taps into many of our desires to be “fresh” and sport the latest looks. It directly speaks to the people behind some of the biggest Black-owned clothing brands and offers first-hand accounts of how the brands developed.
The man responsible for the film is Sacha Jenkins. Jenkins is a writer, musician and filmmaker with a long history of chronicling hip-hop music and culture. When speaking on his decision to tell this story, Jenkins said in an interview with The Fader, “As someone who’s been writing about the culture for a long time, and before that as someone who actually grew up with the culture, I knew that there were a lot of ways into the hip-hop story.”
Jenkins continued on and noted that “a lot of folks had gone into [it] but fashion is one of the most important facets of it.” However, Jenkins is not the only recognizable name behind the scenes. The legendary “Illmatic” rapper, Nas, served as a producer of the film in addition to being an interviewee. Interested viewers can check out the film on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Pluto TV and Vudu.
