Is Hip Hop & Urban Clothing the New Formal Wear Or Will it Become Passé

A fashionable Facebook friend commented recently "

When white people see a black person dressed nicely ... They are so overly friendly and complimentary like I'm the first black person they've ever seen dressed up.

When a black person sees me dressed up they say ... "Is it your birthday" "why are you dressed up"
Imma start saying I had court today to both parties"

Reading his statement I couldn't help but reminiscence about growing up and seeing well dressed Blacks and even whites for that matter.  They only time I see people in business attire anymore in NYC is around the Midtown Manhattan and Downtown Manhattan area.

When I grew up there were countless Blacks going to work suited down 5 days a week. You'd see countless well dressed Blacks going to work on the subways of NYC. On Sunday they wore suits too.

Now if people see you in a suit they look at you like you have two heads. I took a couple of women to a real upscale restaurant (on two different occasions) I showed up in a suit and they opened the door in jeans.

I can't help but wonder if Blacks are working less in office jobs because of the shifting industries in the City or if office jobs have become more causal.

In cities like Chicago and Detroit we know that car and other manufacturing jobs aren't as abundant or lucrative for Blacks to work in anymore. We have to gravitate to more tech industries which have more casual dress codes.  This is something to look into in the future as an interesting trend. 

My how things have changed!  Perhaps this is a sign of the influence of Hip Hop and the Gap. People charge $80 for a white T-Shirt, $350 for Nikes, and $150 for jeans so I guess people think a T-Shirt and Jeans is formal wear.

If you go back and look at people in Harlem in the 50s those folks could dress for real. Maybe if Hip Hop Moguls like Jay-Z and P Diddy dress in suits more often they will start a trend for people to start wearing  upscale clothes again. The urban look is just beginning to look boring and generic looking in it's oh so casual way.

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