RZA on Hip-Hop Style, Hypebeast Culture, and the Return of Wu Wear

Rachel Marlowe
Updated

Wu-Tang’s RZA Raps About Hip-Hop Style and Hypebeast Culture at the Barneys New York x Wu Wear Capsule Collection Drop in Los Angeles

<cite class="credit">Photo: Courtesy of Barneys New York</cite>
Photo: Courtesy of Barneys New York
<cite class="credit">Photo: Courtesy of Barneys New York</cite>
Photo: Courtesy of Barneys New York
<cite class="credit">Photo: Courtesy of Barneys New York</cite>
Photo: Courtesy of Barneys New York
<cite class="credit">Photo: Courtesy of Barneys New York</cite>
Photo: Courtesy of Barneys New York
<cite class="credit">Photo: Courtesy of Barneys New York</cite>
Photo: Courtesy of Barneys New York

“Over the years, the audience for hip-hop fashion has changed and grown tremendously,” said rapper and producer RZA, as he surveyed the scene at Barneys New York’s ThedropLA in Beverly Hills on Saturday evening. The two-day experience, featuring exclusive capsule collections with designers such as Fendi, Fear of God, Greg Lauren, and Palm Angels; experiential installations such as the Prada pachinko parlor, Sliced by Fila pizzeria, and Gucci roller rink; and DJ sets by designer Heron Preston and SimiHaze had pulled in a fashion-hungry hypebeast crowd not usually seen in the department store. “In my day,” RZA said, “you didn’t see hip-hop in a place like Barneys.”

By “my day” RZA meant back in 1995, long before Kanye West’s Yeezy line, Tyler, the Creator’s Golf label, or A$AP Rocky’s collections for Guess, when the Wu-Tang Clan first launched Wu Wear, a line of jackets, hoodies, and tees emblazoned with the group’s iconic W symbol. Wu Wear stores also opened in New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Norfolk, Virginia, and although the line folded in 2008, it paved the way for a profusion of artist-inspired clothing lines. Now, a decade later—approaching the 25th anniversary of the release of the seminal Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) album—RZA has relaunched the line, with the help of Live Nation, and designed an exclusive 10-piece capsule collection for Barneys. “Youth today are really learning about the history of hip-hop,” said RZA. “Wu Wear was one of the first hip-hop fashion lines and has inspired so many other lines [that we] wanted to make it available to this generation.”

Among the pieces that dropped were an embroidered velour tracksuit, red tech-faille logo shorts, and printed tees featuring never-before-seen imagery of band member Ol’ Dirty Bastard (who passed away in 2004) taken by his widow, Icelene Jones, from her personal archive. “The tees also have ‘PYN93-36’ stitched on them, which stands for [the lyrics] ‘protect your neck’; 1993, when the album came out; and 36, for the 36 Chambers,” said RZA, who wore the long-sleeved black tee and black cotton fleece jogger pants with a bright yellow Wu-Tang logo printed down the leg. “It has a military vibe, it has a sleek vibe and a classic vibe.” Wu-Tang also worked with Clarks Originals on a Wu Wear Wallabee collection in two colorways—black and maple suede—imprinted with the group’s globe logo. “Ghostface Killah and Raekwon really championed that style,” said RZA, who sported an original all-black pair handmade in Italy. “For me, this look represents one foot in the future and one foot in the past.”

For Wu-Tang fans who can’t make it to Los Angeles anytime soon, the limited-edition pieces will be available on the Barneys New York website until they sell out. “I love the hypebeast culture—we saw that first with autographs. We would land in a city and there would be a bunch of kids waiting for us to sign photos and then they would sell them on eBay,” said RZA. “So yeah, some of these kids collect the clothes for themselves and some of them will grab them, put them online, and up the price, but they’re entrepreneurs, and they’re helping our industry grow. So I’m glad that Wu-Tang can help people.”

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