FIT professor explains the intersection of hip-hop and fashion

May 20th, 2023

Hip-hop has a dress code.

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

Elena Romero is an assistant professor of Advertising and Marketing Communications at FIT, and the co-curator of the fashion exhibit and co-editor of the book “Fresh Fly Fabulous: 50 Years of Hip Hop.” (Courtesy of Elena Romero)

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

She joined the program for “Closer Look’s” “Hip-Hop at 50” series. She talked with Scott about the roots and evolution of hip-hop style and explained why she feels the fashion industry has had a complicated relationship with hip-hop — and how artists used the art form to change the perception and standards of beauty.

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