Crowned in a diamond-studded halo of thorns by Tiffany & Co. and draped in Louis Vuitton, Kendrick Lamar, one of the hottest musicians around, took his seat in the front row of the venerable house's spring-summer 2023 menswear show in June, next to iconic Black supermodel Naomi Campbell. As men in bomber jackets, baggy pants and other hip-hop-inspired silhouettes sauntered down the runway, the Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper recited a lyrical ode to Virgil Abloh, the collection's groundbreaking Black artistic director and multi-hyphenate force who died in November.
The scene was a lavish display of the luxury and hip-hop industries' modern-day alliance. Making the moment celebrating these two Black innovators even more dramatic: The show was held at the Louvre, one of the world's quintessential repositories of white culture. For those who were around to have witnessed the birth of hip-hop nearly 50 years ago—and the luxury world's cold shoulder—this venerable house's embrace of a Black art form was an almost surreal milestone of progress. It's not, however, a linear tale of traditionally white spaces eventually welcoming Black newcomers but one of push and pull, of appropriation and cross-fertilization, of the inevitabilities of capitalism.
“When you think about the relationship between hip-hop and rap music and fashion houses now, it's unimaginable,” says June Ambrose, a pivotal figure who styled Jay-Z and Missy Elliott before becoming a creative director at Puma. “You have Cardi B in couture Schiaparelli, Chanel and Balmain. When I was coming up, we couldn't even get them on the phone. Matter of fact, we didn't even try. They got on board after we told the story. We didn't ask for permission. They came after [us] because we had already done everything we needed to do. This is our narrative.”
Rapper and music executive Rick Ross is philosophical about luxury's slow embrace. “Luxurious brands, they wasn't always as accepting, which is fine,” he tells Robb Report. “You know, we came from the mud, we came from the bottom, so luxury was always one of the many goals. So now, us being the most explosive—I like to call them strains, like marijuana—the most explosive strain of music now, we are front row at those fashion shows. Rick Ross, Kanye West—we are the new Mötley Crüe. Rihanna is the new Madonna.”
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