“Fashion Fades- Style is Eternal”.

That Yves Saint Laurent quote has always stuck with me. A$AP Ferg makes sure that when I bring up his fashionable past we know that he’s not into fashion, he’s into style. I feel lately the debate about fashion vs. style divides people- but whatever the semantics , I’d argue, you’re born that way baby!

Sure you can hire a stylist, educate yourself about fashion history and how to appreciate the artistry of it all, but some people just have it in their blood. A$AP Ferg is one of those people. Literally. His father Darold Ferguson owned a Harlem boutique and printed shirts and logos for record labels including Bad Boy Records.

The marriage of fashion and music has always existed. Since the 90’s a lot has changed in the music world in terms of fashion designers collaborating with artists. Sure, there were a few Bob Mackie’s & Cher partnerships- but nothing like we see today.

On our countdown this week, Editor in Chief of Yahoo Style; Joe Zee is also talking 1996 Grammys fashion. He told me about styling stars like J.LO in the early years and how much has changed on the red carpets since then. In 1996 no one on the Red Carpet was asking “Who are you wearing?”

Watching this clip from the 1996 Grammys, 2 Pac was arguably one of the first to want to integrate a high fashion look on a world stage. He gives a shout out to Versace and calls out all the boring suits at the awards. It was around that time that things started changing and we started seeing much more high fashion on the red carpet.

TLC was also leading the pack in the style department, as you can see in this clip. In our interview this week, Joe Zee deconstructs their outfits and how a lot of these artists were going the DIY route with their costume design.

From those of you who have known me growing up, this will come as no surprise. But I’ve always been a bit of an “experimental” dresser. I’ve tamed down the more eccentric ensembles – but there was a time where I believed DIY fun fur skirts & Chupa Chup lollipops in my hair was an acceptable outfit. If you can picture the emoji monkey with the hands over his eyes- I’d like to do that for about 10 years of my life.

I love clothes; I love the feeling that the right outfit can completely change my mood. Maybe it’s the actress in me, but I love coming up with a character narrative of an outfit in my mind and where it’s been. There’s no feeling like looking in the mirror and knowing your outfit is just right.

From grade school to high school I went through a heavy experimentation with admittedly a lot of heinous results. But that’s part of the process of finding your signature style right? We all make some laughable mistakes along the way.

When JNCO Jeans announced their comeback this week- I was taken back to being at my grandmother’s house where I would design and sew my own pants. I didn’t have the money- so I had to get creative. If I wasn’t in film & TV I would have probably have gone to fashion school- but all the programs I looked into had math as prerequisites back then- and I am terrible at math.

So I settled on an internship at FashionTelevision where I met my Producer Claudia who now rocks the Retro 30 with me today. The world works in funny ways.
While researching A$AP Ferg, I learned so much about him that I hadn’t previously known. I had no idea that he grew up designing and distributing high-end belts, went to art and design school, and the stories of how the A$AP mob would run through the streets of NYC rocking Rick Owens before he was even a thing. Style is just in you, see what I mean?

I stumbled on this Complex blog which took me on a long trip down memory lane.

I love how some of these brands are all making a major comeback. Check this out.

While I can’t claim my dad designed the Bad Boy label, or that I had Puff Daddy hanging in my living room growing up, I can relate the desire to carve out my personal style. On a high school drama trip to NYC I begged my friend to go to Harlem with me to get that sparkly bandana JLO debuted on the red carpet.

#neverforget

The importance of what these brands & designers meant to music culture can only be understood by this.

All of this to bring me to my fun fashion game with A$AP Ferg. I couldn’t pass up the chance to test his style skills on 90’s fashion. Before watching how he did, test your knowledge and see how you do:

Stay tuned to Retro 30 for our full interview this weekend.