I'm Jonathan K. Parton, welcome to K-Part.

You're not going to believe this, but hip hop is 50 years old.

That's right, 2023 marks its 50th anniversary.

But hip hop is far more than a musical genre.

It's a cultural phenomenon whose impact has always been seen through fashion.

The Museum at FIT, the Venerable Fashion Institute of Technology,

puts a spotlight on that part of hip hop's enduring legacy

in an exhibition called Fresh Fly and Fabulous.

In this conversation, first recorded for Washington Post Live on March 16,

co-curators Elizabeth Way, associate curator of costume at the Museum at FIT,

and Elena Romero, assistant chair of the Marketing Communications Department at FIT,

an author of Free Style In, how hip hop changed the fashion industry,

talk about what influenced hip hop style in the early days?

Rap music has always been about kind of documenting what's happening at the moment,

and the clothes reflect that as well.

So it's the creativity of black and brown communities who

mainstream society is doing their best at this time.

Some might argue still doing their best to make them seem invisible.

So through their style, through their art, they're making themselves visible.

And how hip hop style then took over fashion.

We saw it transition from being a mom and pop and regional specialty store business to being

a department store and international business worldwide.

...