A$AP Rocky always finds a way to be talked about. Whether it’s for being Rihanna‘s new flame, whether it’s for his scandalous arrest following a fight in Stockholm in July 2019, or for the intricate street life background that precedes his fame.
On so many occasions the motif, in addition to the music, that pushes A$AP Rocky into the spotlight, is what he chooses to wear. Always considered a great style icon, he has filtered clothes on several occasions as a means of expressing for himself with power equivalent to the music he produces.
A$AP is probably the most influential character in the fashion world to come from the music scene. Likewise, perhaps we find only Kanye West, who, more than a great stylistic personality, firmly grabs a position on the podium of rappers in fashion for his very successful project with Adidas, Yeezy.
Along with Kanye we could also mention Travis Scott who, between the merchandising without budget limits for the launch of his Astroworld album and the Food & Style collaboration with McDonald and Cactus Jack (his record label), always seems to be one step ahead of the others when we talk about strategies and being able to exploit fashion as a tool to absorb the public who, with increasing frequency, is attracted by the aesthetic language even before the musical one, when choosing to approach an artist.
What distinguishes A$AP Rocky from the other two personalities mentioned, however, is that in his case we are talking about style, rather than fashion in a broad sense. Of choices that have no declared commercial purposes or that do not aim at the fictitious construction of a caricature character in order to stand out in a crowded world like that of music, but which are an expression of the figure of an artist as much as in person.
A$AP Rocky speaks an extremely clear and aware language with respect to his image, a language rich in experimentation and a mix between what is considered canonically feminine and what comes from the underground background of Rap music. He expresses his eclectic personality without exploitation and often, with his own choices of look, supports ideologies or tells something about himself.
Here, then, is a ranking of 5 episodes in which A$AP Rocky has chosen to send a message through his outfits:
1.We should all be feminists
2.Babushka Boi
3.“The Prettiest man alive” Campaign on GQ, the body issue
4.The bags
5.Dior Pre-Fall 2019 event
1. We should all be feminists
On several occasions, A$AP wore the iconic Dior t-shirt “We should all be feminists“. Although the choice to wear it also in Wrong‘s music video, where he repeatedly referred to women as “bitches”, was considered extremely bad taste, an episode for which the artist has repeatedly apologized, the slogan speaks for itself and the intrinsic message thus directed clearly exposes the singer’s intentions and opinions. We should, by the way!
2. Babuska Boi
The second episode refers to the period of Babushka Boi, 2019. For those who do not know this is the name of one of his singles, and “Babushka” is literally “grandmother” in Russian, but the noun is also used to indicate the scarf used as a headdress by knotting it under the chin, a custom of grandmothers in Eastern Europe.
In addition to being an accessory connected only to women, it is however not a particularly fashionable object, being characteristic of a cultural minority and moreover of an elderly predominance.
At the same time, the New York rapper managed to clear the meaning of the negative declination of babushka in fashion, thus handed down over the years and between generations, making it his own and coining the “Babushka Boi” around the headdress and launched a new trend. For the first time it is in 2018 on the occasion of the LACMA Art and Film Gala that we see Rocky super proud of his scarf.
3. The prettiest man alive, GQ
The third episode is perhaps the most recent. The cover and a long editorial within the famous GQ magazine. In particular, the British magazine has chosen A$AP Rocky as the main key character of the number “the body issue” to be released this June, a particularly important month for the magazine, and moreover the image it has chosen to narrate of the rapper. sees the subject of a total distortion of masculinity. Defining it “the prettiest man alive” GQ proposed Rocky in a skirt, glitter, chains, sequins, poses and movements that completely cancel the normative concept of virility.
Although, being an editorial, it is not entirely authentic to define this episode as an artist’s choice, it is still a message of which he has accepted to be the spokesperson and face, enclosing its values and sharing them.
4. The bags
4. More than a single episode, the fourth point speaks of an artist’s habit, that of wearing purses, handbags and clutches. Another accessory of a feminine nature that is now declined in multiple facets in everyday men’s clothing, from backpacks, briefcases, to clutches in the most fierce cases. A$AP Rocky, however, does not use “men’s bags“, nor does it make any kind of distinction between models, lengths, colors. It is not difficult to see him sporting the latest IT bag Dior, Gucci, Balenciaga etc … competing with the most on trend influencers and underlining the redundant message that, for him, there are no gender differences in clothing that cannot be explored, reinterpreted and in many cases canceled.
5. Dior Pre-Fall 2019
The last relevant episode regarding the clothes chosen by A$AP Rocky once again pushes the artist’s obvious lack of interest in gender limits. In this case we see him at an event at Dior’s Pre-Fall 2019 in Tokyo, wrapped in a pair of iridescent trousers in shades of silver and a shirt in transparent mesh and white lace. Look concluded with a pair of dad style sneakers, rings with pearls and braids. The message? No outfit is inappropriate if you feel like wearing it, and there is no limit that cannot be exceeded.
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