凉 Vintage Vices: FUBU 🍜 ONE-WITHOUT-END

STYLE

Aug 23

Written By Jasmine Hunt

我们的美国

FOR US BY US

It was like 1998 and my cousin came to the house with her boyfriend, bobbin lol! She had on fubu overalls and this white tube top. I was like, damn that outfit was so cool to me. My cousin is five years older and I wasn't old enough to wear all of that stuff so I lived vicariously. My cousin had the best outfits, pants with benjamins decorated all over, those big ass combat boots, and some tommy hilfiger shirts! I remember they had the high pony tails and puffy coats, navy and yellow type stuff, and I asked her one day, what's fubu?

Fubu was the first "Urban" brand that I came to love in the 90's as a young girl. It was a brand that celebrated hip hop culture and something I felt was so hard to embrace, blackness. For a lot of reasons, I felt like there were so many complexities within my race. When I was kid, it wasn't cool to be mixed or multi-ethnic. I got made fun of every part of my childhood (more on that another day) and often times it was for having features that weren't european or white enough.

To be honest, I see all the fads nowadays out there embracing and boasting about this newfound love for the mixed race. The truth is, before kimye and the like, it was and still is a real struggle. When I was growing up, kids would come up to me and ask me what my nationality was, they would say mean things and I didn't really know how to handle that. It's a luxury to grow up knowing that you're equal. I couldn't really embrace myself because the world kept telling me not to.

I say all of this because when I saw fubu and all these other brands like roc-a-wear, sean jean, and phat farm, it was so heartfelt. They were out in the open rocking urban vibes and streetwear and it was appealing to the masses. It was kind of through fashion and style that I learned about embracing this part of myself. It was inspiring in a lot of ways.

Because on the other hand, I wasn't seeing this love for my people at my school or the places I went or the shows that I watched. I kept seeing a lot of ignorance. But I felt like when I was around my older cousins who sported these styles, I wanted to be just like them. I remember listening to all the bad boy and def jam artists. I used to copy ma$e and act like I could fly around in that puffy ass outfit! Lol

TEAM FUBU

Fast-forward to this era, things have really changed. I'm glad to see diversity and more inclusion. I see people really enjoying the blend and buying into businesses that share this concept. Fubu was a new york-based brand that was born in queens. The four founders had a vision to create a brand for the consumer, by the consumer. It's really interesting how they grew to become a successful brand and paved careers into entrepreneurship. Fubu "Represents determination, excellence and boldness of the four partners who had the courage to go against the grain in 1992."

ONE-WITHOUT-END

Since college, I've always gone thrift shopping. (I want to do a thrift shopping guide soon.) it's so therapeutic and guilt-free lol. This year I discovered, one-without-end because the track suits and windbreakers are resurrecting. I saw this pair of overalls and I fell in love. I like the logo straps and the cuff details. I paired mine with a striped bomber. Definitely had to do the off-shoulder thang. Go check them out and enjoy your life.

Embrace yourself, love yourself. Don't be afraid to come into what you believe is right and true.