As of today, we are all familiar with Sean John, Rocawear,Phat Farm, G-Unit, Akoo, and a host of other hip hop geared clothing lines. In continuing with my Black History spotlight, we must recognize who came before all of them,the blueprint if you will. His name is Carl Williams, and in 1989 he started Karl Kani. Carl hails from Brooklyn and is very much a self starter that seen a void in the way of menswear and quickly capitalized. With no formal training in tailoring, he had a vision of how black people wanted their clothes to fit. Noticing that people of the urban community did not like how typical jeans were cut, his signature style included lots of baggy jeans and bold colors that made us stand out while complementing our vast skin tones.
Carl went on to gain national popularity by appealing to hip hop celebrities like P Diddy, Redman, AZ ,Tupac,and Notorious B.I.G. All it takes is for your clothes to be mentioned in music to take your career to the next level. And next level, it definitely went.
Named the Godfather of Urban Fashion, in 1996 he was named on of the richest African Americans by Time magazine. Not bad at all! Today Carl is pretty much basking in his success from the hey day as the industry is over saturated with urban clothing lines. Just remember as you marvel at the urban looks of today, remember who started it all. His name is Carl and back in the day Karl Kani was an unstoppable force! This is your Black History fact for today.
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