Earlier this summer I spent a few weeks in Spain and Italy. I hit the beach, drank sangria, devoured everything in front of me and obsessively watched all the European street style. Surprisingly what I didn’t see this time around was a barrage of Italian labels. Instead, three uber-casual fashion labels dominated. Every fashionable guy walking by me was wearing one of three things: A pair of basic Chucks, a pair of retro-New Balance kicks or something with the Obey logo.
T-shirts, hoodies and tons of logo’d up snapback hats. Some with bold in-your-face, old school Obey logos and others with softer, re-invented logos.
Of course, the Obey phenomena spread worldwide with the “Andre the Giant” posters that began appearing on light poles, bus benches and buildings in the late 80s and early 90s. In 2001, long after the initial hype, Shepard Fairey launched the Obey clothing line as an extension of his street art campaigns and basic T-shirts and caps became another canvas for his pop culture graphics and recognizable logo.
The logo-heavy clothing was instantly embraced by skateboarding culture, but it’s really only recently that the brand has gone a little more mainstream with accessible offerings spreading across North America and abroad. And hey, if Euro guys are pulling it off when they’re not suited up, it’s probably not a bad idea to slip on a hat on your next day off.
