'Fresh Dressed' a vibrant look at hip-hop fashion

From slave-era influences to today's runways, Fresh Dressed explores the intertwined art forms of hip hop and fashion, and how the rise of a music genre simultaneously shined a light on the clothes of choice for fans and practitioners alike.

It's an interesting look at an often glossed-over aspect of the subculture - although the doc sags as it progresses into the mid-1990s and current modes of fashion.

Fresh Dressed starts way back, defining what fashion has meant for American black culture since the 19th century - the term "Sunday best" referred to the one nice outfit slaves were given to wear to church. The film weaves its way through African American musical history before hitting the late 1970s. That's when, according to director Sacha Jenkins' story line, a cease-fire between gangs in the Bronx, spurred by the death of a gang peacekeeper, led kids to attempt to outdo each other with music and clothes, rather than violence.

It's a pat story, but Jenkins certainly has the bona fides to speak authoritatively. The Philadelphia-born Jenkins, making his documentary directorial debut, cofounded influential hip-hop magazine and brand Ego Trip. He has made a name for himself chronicling the culture, and his passion infuses the soul of Fresh Dressed. Jenkins talks to rappers (Kanye West has rarely been so affable), to those who design the clothes, to those who sport them. He explores the niches of hip-hop fashion - from sneakerheads (collectors of sneakers) to the style differences among neighborhoods - but rarely does he discuss women's roles in fashion (they wore clothes, too, didn't they?). And he focuses on hip hop's birthplace, New York, to the exclusion of most other regions.

Fresh Dressed's main theme is the inherent link between fashion and issues of class. You might not have had the nicest apartment or a cool car, but you had an on-point outfit, and that's what mattered. Kanye West put it best: "The class conversation is bigger than the race conversation." It was born not of being black or Latino, but of being able to show you had something. Anything at all.

As hip-hop fashion began to grow in the cultural consciousness - as it was rebranded as urbanwear or streetwear - Fresh Dressed loses its way in tracing the style's boom in the 1990s to its collapse in the early aughts.

But it's still great to see vintage footage and talking heads intercut with Hectah Arias' colorful animation, making it an enjoyable, although not essential, viewing experience for anyone interested in the topic.

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