FIT professor explains the intersection of hip-hop and fashion – WABE

Hip-hop has a dress code.

When “Closer Look” host Rose Scott asked Elena Romero what she’d wear to the hip-hop fashion show, the veteran fashion journalist said she’d ditch her custom name belt and hoop earrings.

Romero is assistant chair and assistant professor in the Department of Marketing Communications at the Jay and Patti Baker School of Business and Technology at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

She joined “Closer Look’s” Hip Hop @ 50 series. She spoke with Scott about the origins and evolution of hip-hop style and why she feels the fashion industry has a complicated relationship with hip-hop – and how artists have used art to change perceptions and standards of beauty.

“We took the hip celebrity from the front row to the runway,” said Romero, who serves as curator of the fashion exhibit and editor of the book “Fresh Fly Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop.”