New York's Museum at FIT is celebrating 50 years of hip-hop style with a truly awesome exhibition: Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style. 

This is the first time the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), an internationally recognized leader in career education in design, fashion and business, has ever hosted an exhibition showcasing fashion through a music genre. 

Over 100 garments and accessories made by designers and brands like Dapper Dan, Misa Hylton, Karl Kani, FUBU, Baby Phat and more worn by the likes of LL Cool J, Missy Elliott, Aaliyah, Cardi B.

The exhibition was co-curated by the associate costume curator Elizabeth Way and journalist and assistant chair for marketing communications at FIT, Elena Romero. 

“As a fashion historian, it is important to highlight  aspects of fashion culture that are not generally known or are misunderstood. Hip-hop style is such an influential  part of American fashion, and in turn,  international fashion,  but this is not always recognized,”  Way told ESSENCE. “Hip hop style is also so much more diverse than people realize.” 

Sean Diddy Combs

Diddy was also the first Black designer to win the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2004, beating out such stalwarts as Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors. “So he did a lot to change the mainstream fashion industry on 7th Avenue from this very stereotypical style that mainstream fashion looked on when they thought of hip-hop fashion,” Way added.

Eleanora Kennedy, former co-owner of High Times magazine along with her husband and legendary civil rights attorney Michael Kennedy, is a graduate and now a board member of FIT. She attended the exhibition opening with her granddaughter Ava.

"The history connects me to the early years of High Times magazine when a steady stream of Hip Hop artists came through. It was style and politics, music and poetry. I brought my granddaughter for a trip down memory lane,” Kennedy told Benzinga. “It’s crucial for young people to understand the impact hip-hop had on music culture as well as politics over the past five decades and this exhibition is doing just that.”

Fresh, Fly, and Fabulous: Fifty Years of Hip Hop Style is on view through April 23, 2023 and it’s free and open to the public.

Photo of event poster: Jameel Shabeez