When Kanye West hit Madison Square Garden with his extravagant fashion show meets TLOP listening party back in February, the performer debuted a range of concert merchandise adorned with his newest lyrics – each phrase carefully set in a bold blackletter font. “You were only allowed to wear something like that if you were affiliated, and if you weren't, you were getting jammed up.”
“Growing up in Venice in the 80s and 90s, I always saw gentlemen in my neighborhood wearing t-shirts and crewnecks with that font,” he added. “Those letters and that traditional layout are a part of my culture as a gang member,” Spanto explained to Dazed. The duo behind the brand, Spanto and 2tone, channeled the frustration and anger they felt from the gentrification overtaking their hometown into a debut collection with no shortage of the Old English font and its links to LA gang culture. Before Vetements or Pablo, pioneers like New York’s SSUR (founded back in 1990) as well as newer brands like Been Trill have been using the letter style – even A$AP Mob made use of the font for their debut collection of namesake merch in 2013.īorn x Raised is a Los Angeles streetwear label that has embraced a variant of blackletter since day one.
It’s long been found in gothic subculture ( featuring in the pages of 80s and 90s goth bible Propaganda, for instance) and has been a frequently used motif in the world of streetwear for years. The letters may be sweeping through mainstream men’s and women’s fashion right now, but the style is nothing new. The bold and medievalesque style, sometimes referred to as gothic or Old English, has quickly risen to the go-to typeface choice for designers and labels alike this year – just look at Gucci’s SS16 menswear show, where it popped up on a hoodie.
Whether you blame Kanye West and his Life of Pablo merch or Vetements and their longer-than-longsleeve t-shirts, one thing is certain: blackletter fonts are everywhere right now.
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