Fresh dressed Full Documentary

 From the beginning, hip-hop fashion has been a tug of war between relatability and aspiration. At the beginning of the new documentary "Fresh Dressed," DMC of Run-DMC says of his group's street-influenced style, "Dressing this way lets them know, 'Oh, he's like me.

It was the mid-1980s, less than a decade into hip-hop's commercial era, and already that narrative is unraveling. Run-DMC was at the forefront of brand-driven consumerism in hip-hop, a characteristic that would become central to the genre over the years.

Fresh dressed Full Documentary

"Fresh Dressed" is the first documentary to tell this story, packing a lot of history into a small space. Beginning with the early days of gang fashion and working its way up to today's international runways, it shows how hip-hop fashion initially absorbed what was around it, then eventually became the inspiration for everyone.

The film gains momentum when it arrives in the early 1990s, the era of hip-hop's first real breakthrough, and a time when Marky Mark could reasonably be photographed in a Malcolm X t-shirt and a multi-colored Cross Colours fisherman's hat.

Fresh dressed Trailer

Cross Colours was germinal: a black-owned California brand designed with hip-hop in mind. Carl Jones, one of the founders of Cross Colors, talks about the innovation of pairing a voluminous silhouette with a fitted waist, meaning fans no longer need to wear oversized four-pants to achieve a baggy effect.

"Fresh Dressed" draws the family tree that began with Cross Colours, whose leaders and partners went on to work at places like Karl Kani, Walker Wear, Enyce and Sean John, the clothing company founded by music mogul Sean Combs. Sean John had his own offspring, including Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow of the Public School label, who were recently named creative directors of DKNY.

Fresh dressed Full Documentary

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In 2004, Combs won a Council of Fashion Designers of America award for menswear designer of the year, a watershed moment for hip-hop's acceptance in the fashion world, and a far cry from the days when Cross Colors and Karl Kani had to fight for floor space in department stores.

However, "Fresh Dressed" mostly skips over the 2000s, as hip-hop fashion becomes a less defined aesthetic and overlaps more with the traditional fashion world. At this point, aspiration has moved beyond familiarity, but individuality has also receded.

Fresh dressed

Much of it is told through interviews: Mr. Kani is fascinating and also funny; Mr. Combs is confident; and Kanye West is hyper-attractive. ("Being fresh is more important than having money!") 

There is simply too much material, however, to fit seamlessly into this ambitious film. There are brief, necessary stops at the early airbrush customizers Shirt Kings; Dapper Dan, who took luxury brands and remade them (without their permission) as sportswear kings in his Harlem workshop; and the Lo-Lifes, the New York gang that made Polo theft a lifestyle. But so much is left unsaid: any one of these could be its own movie.

And there are omissions: the traditional West Coast style is barely touched upon; ditto for the South. There are no eight-ball jackets, no high T-shirts, no Cam'ron talking about pink clothes.

The film is most compelling when it shows how, in the 1990s, just as black-owned businesses were establishing themselves, mainstream fashion companies were building their brands on the backs of hip-hop artists. Often, these rappers were not officially paid endorsers, though they had more influence than any old-fashioned celebrity. Notably, however, no one from Polo or Tommy Hilfiger or Nike or Timberland appears on screen here to offer context or acknowledgements.