Creating Culture: Ye's Sunglasses at Rolling Loud 2022
Headlining today's cultural news, Ye (aka Kanye) made a surprise appearance during Lil Durk's Rolling Loud set. First of all who is Lil Durk? Secondly, what does this news have anything to do with sunglasses at all?
After a quick google search, I have the answer to our first question. Lil Durk is a 29 year old rapper from Chicago. He's mostly known for his feature on a popular Drake song "Laugh Now Cry Later". Other than that, there's not too much other things you need to know about him.
To answer our second question, "What does this news have anything to do with sunglasses?" Kanye West, oops I mean Ye, has a well storied history of setting fashion trends. Here's a list of fashion trends Ye has started throughout his career. Personally, I've been fashion influenced by Kanye. I'm not proud of my pink polo phase during my freshman year of college. Looking back, I can see why I didn't have a girlfriend that year.
Last night, in typically Ye fashion (wow, I'm really proud of this wordplay), he came out on stage rockin' a pair of futuristic, oversized wrap around mirrored sunglasses. The unique portion of his ensemble is the fact his hoodie was over his head and his sunglasses wrapped over the hoodie. Off the top of my head, Ye's sunglasses resembles this pair of Oakley wrap around.
Now a typical homosapien would never consider this hoodie sunglasses layering. But when someone with the fashion authority like Ye does it, I'm afraid when middle schools starts next week, we will see a bunch of 12 year old kids rockin' this combo trying impress their 2nd period crush. You'll never have a chance Tommy, she's too good for you. So the sunglasses hype begins.
Rumor swirling around the internet is that the pair of sunglasses Ye worn last night will be released as part of his Yeezy Gap x Balenciaga collaboration.
In fact, this isn't the first time Kanye has incorporated sunglasses into his fashion works. In his Yeezy season 6 collection includes a pair of sporty sunglasses which came in 3 colorways.
As someone who runs a retail optical shop and ecommerce sunglasses store, I'm pretty in tune with the pulse of the "sunglasses market". The way I see it is this: Sunglasses will become a desired fashion piece in the near future. I believe the trend for sunglasses will head down a path just like how sneakers became a cultural phenomenon.
Like sneakers, sunglasses serve a functional and fashionable purpose. Both come with classic designs that's timeless like the aviator or the wayfarer sunglasses. However, it's the endless possibilities of designs of this malleable accessory is what excites me. I forsee fashion designers seeing sunglasses as an untapped canvas and pushing the boundaries of how a pair of sunglasses can exist in our day to day lives. In 1-2 years, don't be surprised if people are flexing their sunglasses collection as they do with their sneakers collection.
Between me and you, I've already started my collection of cool sunglasses. My recent pick up is this pair of Christian Dior oversized black acetate sunglasses. I rock them everywhere I go. You can catch me at your local Target parking lot flexing my Dior sunglasses while carrying a 96 count size 1 Huggies diapers pack.
The fashion world is a fluidity game. Every day someone in the fashion world is exploring ways to spark the next big trend, grab heavy attention and be more unique than what was last to be considered unique. This cycle does not stop, there is no apex in the game.
Will sunglasses be the next fashion frontier? Let's find out together.
featuring photos by: Henry Hwu
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