LAS VEGAS — On the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, Karl Kani, who in 1991 founded the brand that helped set the stage for the birth of street fashion, was honored by the MAGIC trade show with a Lifetime Achievement Award. WWD snagged a few minutes with Kani to chat about his personal journey and the enduring popularity of the genre, both in music and fashion.
WWD: This is the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. How did it start?
Karl Kani: I believe it’s the 50th anniversary because this is when hip-hop was really established in the mainstream underground. It was when the first hip-hop album came out, and really launched hip-hop through the streets, in the cities and throughout the United States. Two turntables, a mixer and a microphone changed the world.
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WWD: Who put out the first album?
K.K.: It was Grandmaster Flash and the Sugarhill Gang. Every kid played that record back-to-back and knew every single lyric of those songs. We all wanted to be like them. It just changed our lives.
WWD: What about you, when did you get into this business?
K.K.: My journey in fashion started at a young age when I was like 12 years old. I grew up in Flatbush [in Brooklyn, New York]. My parents allowed me to buy maybe one or two pair of sneakers for the year. That was it — and we wanted more. So during the big winter snowstorms back in 1973/‘74, I was shoveling the front yard and my cousin was shoveling his yard. Then my neighbor asked me if I could do her yard. And she said, “I’ll pay you to do it.” She gave me $5 to shovel her snow and then other neighbors started coming to us asking us to shovel their yards as well. So we turned it into a business, and as soon as we got $30, we ran to Glenwood Flea Market and bought our first pair of Pumas. At 12 years old, we were able to afford to buy something on our own that our parents would not buy for us. And that’s all I needed — that feeling of buying something and securing it for yourself meant everything to me. And that was my first take into being a fashion whore.
WWD: How did that lead you to create your own brand?
K.K.: My father used to get his clothes made by a tailor in New York and I asked him to make me an outfit too. I started wearing this outfit and all my friends asked where I got it. I wasn’t going to tell them my secret. But I started selling clothes to a lot of my friends and I was making the clothes more baggy than what was in the stores because they didn’t have the fit we wanted. Once we created this look, I decided to move to California in 1989 and take this thing seriously because we needed some manufacturing. We set up shop in L.A. and teamed up with Cross Colours; we became partners in 1991. That’s when we established ourselves here at the MAGIC show — we tore the house down. We had people lined up around the corner, trying to buy our clothing. And we just paved the way for so many other designers who wanted to live this dream.
WWD: That baggy fit definitely epitomized the look back then. How has it evolved over the years?
K.K.: Baggy had a great run — we established a look and a fit that identified who we were and made us feel comfortable. And 20 years later, a new trend started coming in — the skinny jeans trend — and that changed the game somewhat. The baggy jeans phase kind of outgrew certain generations. You could get a kid from junior high school through high school, and he’ll probably rock the same brand. But normally when kids go to college, that may change. They don’t want to wear the same thing they wore when they were young. So we went through five or six generations of kids going through high school and were very successful. But I felt like the new generation wanted to be different. A lot of times kids don’t want to dress like their parents. So we had to adjust. And those changes came.
WWD: Why do you think urban fashion is still relevant today?
K.K.: Look at every European runway fashion show — every top designer is back to baggy now. Fashion has a way of circling itself around and now’s the time that it’s coming back. And I feel it’s gonna be here for a minute because people want change, they want difference in their lives and fashion makes you feel different with the baggy look, especially for bigger guys. They love it. The skinny jean thing wasn’t really cool for the big guys. But now this is their sweet spot and we’re going to cater to those guys even more now.
WWD: Did you ever think hip-hop would have this kind of impact on overall culture?
K.K.: For a kid on the streets, hip-hop gave me hope. Our visions were kind of blurry at the time. If you asked a kid growing up in the ‘70s, what do you want to be when you get older? He’d say, “I want to work for the post office, or be an electrician or a plumber, work for the board of education or become a fireman.” And that was pretty much it. But hip-hop changed all of that. Now, you could be a producer, stylist, a graphic artist, you could open your own PR firm, you could have a podcast. You could do so many different things that hip-hop opened up for kids on the streets worldwide, not just kids and people in general. The community that was built through hip-hop is so powerful, and it’s growing and growing. Without hip-hop, what would this world be? It has united people worldwide. There are no color boundaries with hip-hop. If you meet somebody, and they listen to hip-hop, you say, “OK, he’s cool. He’s cool.”
WWD: What artists and companies do you admire today?
K.K.: Jay-Z, Michael Jordan, Nas. I have a lot of respect for artists that transcend moments and have been around for decades and find ways to recreate themselves. And I love artists like Nas. Although he was really good at music, now he’s a great investor. He’s invested in stocks, he invested in Ring when it first started and made millions off of that. I just like to see power moves — it’s very inspirational and makes me want to do better and more things. This is bigger than hip-hop, this is worldwide, this is life. And it’s busy. So I respect people who think outside of the grain and do different things.
WWD: Are you surprised at the kind of impact hip-hop has had on music overall? I mean, there’s even some country music with rap influences.
K.K.: Nothing surprises me when it comes to hip-hop anymore, when I see how powerful the influence has been and what it has done for my brand. The Karl Kani brand is bigger internationally than we are here in United States. And it’s through the power of hip-hop and artists who wore my clothes throughout the years, like Tupac. They worship Tupac like a god in Europe. And every time you Google him, you see him wearing my clothing. So it’s just real and it’s legit. You see all these kids wearing my clothing, and they all identify with him.
WWD: So you still have your line?
K.K.: Yeah, we have 10 flagship stores in Japan; we’re distributed in 25 foreign countries. Our partner in Europe is the number-one street retailer in the world: Snipes. They just opened up 350 stores here in the United States and I was with Sven [Voth], the owner, when he only had two stores. The story is kind of unparalleled. At that time, the Karl Kani business was very helpful to his business because he was my only distributor. And by him growing his business, he grew the Karl Kani brand throughout different countries as well, like France, London, Switzerland, Amsterdam, you name it. So the combination was very powerful.
WWD: Where does your brand fit into the fashion picture today?
K.K.: Our sweet spot is the oversize look. [Over the years] we made adjustments and started changing because it’s not about what I want, it’s about what the market is dictating, and you have to adjust to where it’s at. But now that we’re back into our sweet spot, we can really dominate. We’re going to be unveiling our new version of baggy in New York on [Feb. 27] with a video music box and welcoming Dahlia and celebrating the 50 years of hip-hop. We’re going to take a whole different take on baggy, which is going to be really amazing.
WWD: What do you think is the future of the genre?
K.K.: I know for sure it’s only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger, because there’s nothing even in [sight] that could take over hip-hop and change the game. Everyone’s united behind a certain sound and that’s the ultimate longevity. And I’ve seen it become bigger internationally as well. When you go to Germany or France, some of the biggest artists out there are rapping in their own languages.
WWD: Do you think it’s taken too long for this art form to gain recognition?
K.K.: Not at all — everything happens when it’s the right time. It may have taken some people time to really believe this thing is going to be around for a long time and have longevity. But now that we’ve gone through 10 generations of kids and life and families, it’s [proven to be] a powerful force that can’t be stopped.
WWD: How does it feel to be given a lifetime achievement award from MAGIC?
K.K.: It makes me feel great and it also makes me want to get up tomorrow and work that much harder. I don’t get too caught up on titles and stuff like that. Because sometimes you hear stories about people who’ve made an impact in a certain part of their lives, and that’s all. I obviously respect them for what they’ve done, but I don’t want that to be my story. I want to be in the game. And if I’m going to take the crown of being the originator of streetwear, I need to figure out how to make the next [chapter] happen as well.