Even MediaCorp artiste Ben Yeo has been sold on and can be spotted using street label, A Bathing Ape. Jaime Lim gets into the street vibe and finds out what the hype’s about.

Once designed for comfort to fit skateboarders and basketballers in the hip-hop scene, street labels like Neighborhood, Visvim, Comme Des Garçon, and GOODENOUGH, now design their street wear clothes to keep up with trends.

In other words, you won’t find street wear players in loose jerseys and baggy pants anymore. Instead, you’ll see them in fitted T-shirts and low-rise skinny jeans.

While the rising status of street labels can be attributed to features in magazines and street fashion websites like streething.com and hypebeast.com, street wear has somewhat lost its underground roots. Moving away from its origins in the United States’ hip-hop scene, street fashion has become more accessible with more street fashion specialty shops.

The increasing demand is also supported by the sprouting of street labels shops, namely in Far East Plaza and the hip strip at Haji Lane. Local initiatives like sneaker shop LeftFoot and Revoltage have also expanded their operations to Cineleisure.

While the average street label T-shirt costs $100 and jeans and shoes, up to $300 and $350 respectively, what justifies the price is the exclusivity of each item as there are limited designs printed for each item. But street fashion also boils down to your own individuality.

Danny Tan, 31, store operations manager at local street label store, Surrender, says, “No matter how many people buy, it’s very individual. Ultimately, it’s how you carry it off. There may be 10 people wearing the same thing but there’s always a different vibe.”

Al Azhar, 22, an old hand at the street wear game, shares his expertise about street fashion. He advises buyers to look for details, namely the garment’s cutting, fit, material and design. Also, he says to expect to pay more for limited edition items and not to just follow brands blindly.

Al swears by Futura Laboratories T-shirts because they’re personally designed by illustrious graffiti artist, Lenny McGurr (also known as “Futura 2000”) and shoes from Visvim because they use quality materials such as deerskin. According to him, it’s ultimately the hard work and creative talent behind each design that makes street fashion money well spent.

And while it’s hard to distinguish a genuine street wear item from the mass of over commercialised products, Al shares how to spot a shady item from the real deal.

According to him, the most obvious telltale signs are the price and quality.

“Any deal too good to be true is probably fake,” Al advised.

With street fashion seemingly destined to become even more prominent in the fashion scene, Al predicts, “I foresee more collaborations between the labels and the different styles.”

This is indeed good news for the players out there as they can look forward to having more choices and retaining their individuality with more designs