Threads of Change - Streetwear’s Role in Social Justice
By Zuza Gaboush
If You See Da Police, Warn a Brother!
Have you seen or heard this phrase before? Originating at some point between the 90s and 2000s, this phrase and the Warner Bros logo became a famous t-shirt graphic and has been widely popular since. But this t-shirt is more than it appears to be at surface level. While the Warner Bros tee is casual and even humorous, it hints towards deeper issues of injustices in this country of the police against the black community. This shirt and countless other items of streetwear act as symbols of protest and calls for social change. Using subversive methods of activism through streetwear is an accessible, cheap and constant method through which to generate change, allowing wearers to express their support for various movements in everyday life.
Similarly, Virgil Abloh’s conceptual tee, Watch Your Back, demonstrates another way through which art and social justice efforts can be accessible to the masses through fashion. By screen-printing the words “Watch Your Back” both forwards and reversed on the front of a t-shirt, Abloh uses reversal to create a new space outside of the confines of a t-shirt; he creates a space in which the wearer of the shirt effectively has two ‘backs’ and a 360° exposure on all sides to threats and violence. How can one ‘watch their back’ when they are surrounded on all sides? This t-shirt conceptualizes the vulnerability, impossibility of safety and perpetual observance of black bodies in America.
These concepts may not be explicitly explored on the clothing items themselves, but they inhabit the physical space of clothing that the public can consume, while also inhabiting an intellectual space that advocates for ideals such as equality and justice.These concepts work ‘underneath’ the clothes, spreading ideas and messages that are subconsciously working their way into the worlds that oppress the consumer. Using the tools of an oppressor to undermine them through hidden and subversive manners is a large characteristic of streetwear, and can be seen in the use of the previously mentioned Warner Bros logo, or Abloh’s tee that he debuted at an Off-White fashion show in Paris. The beauty of streetwear is the breadth of accessibility it presents; you can get one of these pieces off the runway from a designer brand or purchase it from a local, grass-roots seller in your community.
Black-owned high fashion brands, specifically Pyer Moss, are also working towards making change in the community through the avenue of streetwear. Collaborating with existing social justice organizations such as the Marsha P. Johnson Institute and the Innocence Project through their new platform, Exist to Resist, Pyer Moss is donating a majority or all of their profits from these sales to support community efforts towards equality. Kerby Jean-Raymond, owner of Pyer Moss, is utilizing the exposure his brand maintains, as well as its creative and financial resources to make clothing that not only expresses a need for change, but directly contributes to the programs dedicated to aiding or creating these movements. At the end of the day, one of streetwear’s primary functions is making clothes by and for the community, sowing seeds of change, advocating for a better world, and looking fly while doing it.
Zahir Ramos, creator of the brand, Sold Out (catch his interview with Station Magazine),put it best, “Streetwear is the voice. It all ties into culture, the modern culture today… that’s what the people in the streets… are talking about. I think one of the best ways to tap into culture is just passing out t-shirts on the street.”
