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Back to the Future
Baby Phat Walked so That Modern-Day ‘Streetwear’ Could Fly
How the iconic Baby Phat cat walked right off the runway and into the closets of millions of Black women and girls
This story is a part of our Back to the Future series on how key moments in the year 2000 influenced similar events in 2020.
It’s been 20 years since Baby Phat made its New York Fashion Week debut in 2000. The sexy clothes bedazzled with the iconic Baby Phat cat walked right off of that first runway and into the closets of millions of Black women and girls, who proudly flaunted the ghetto-fabulous style that would soon become the standard for fashion in the new millennium.
Kimora Lee Simmons was at the helm of the new brand, creating for and with Black women in mind, speaking to the Black consumer at a time when traditional fashion houses didn’t see the value in aligning with hip-hop or Black talent. Baby Phat was a blueprint for Black luxury and changed perceptions of Black consumers and Black talent.
The cultural climate
At the turn of the century, hip-hop had risen to glamorous heights, and hip-hop’s fashion, urbanwear, was having its own renaissance. In the ’80s, Dapper Dan had done the pioneering work of bringing luxury and hip-hop-inspired silhouettes to the Black community. Urbanwear had come in his wake to create clothes that were “For Us By Us.” Urbanwear was catering to a market of Black consumers that had long been ignored by traditional heritage brands. Only to later boomerang back around to Black consumers once urbanwear brands showed how valuable Black consumers are in the fashion landscape — (cough cough) Tommy Hilfiger.
The runways, the ads, and the product of legacy luxury lines were utterly void of diversity despite rap lyrics and videos being chocked full of Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Chanel, and Prada. In 1999, Jay-Z founded Rocawear after a European owned “streetwear” label had declined to collaborate with him on a line. Urbanwear was born as a response to the void in the industry.
Baby Phat’s fashions helped to usher in a lifestyle of ghetto fabulousness and…
