WHY ISN'T STREETWEAR JUST CALLED "FASHION"?

Just when everyone thinks streetwear can’t get any bigger, it does.

For the last few years, streetwear’s rise has been one of the big storylines in fashion. In 2017, its symbolic high point came when Supreme sold a stake that reportedly valued the company at $1 billion (paywall) to the private-equity firm Carlyle Group. It was a staggering valuation for a company known for selling hoodies, t-shirts, and irreverent ephemera, like a logo-stamped brick and branded nunchucks.

But the success of Supreme, and streetwear more broadly, makes sense when you look at how fashion and culture are changing. Clothes across the spectrum are getting more casual and drawing inspiration from sports, driving the popularity of items such as sneakers and sweatshirts. Hip-hop has grown from a subculture into the dominant musical form in the US, surpassing rock. Millennials and Gen Z represent a large and still growing share of fashion consumers, and they want community and authenticity(paywall).