For as long as high school has existed, clothing has been everything for high schoolers. Everyone wants the nicest, most “expensive” clothing on the market. Students want designer clothes and accessories. Earlier in the year, a new trend began rather quickly: the “hypebeast” trend.
The term “hypebeast,” which is also the name of a popular blog about fashion, refers to someone who wears lots of high end/designer clothing (generally looks like streetwear/street fashion).
The trend has been around for a while, but it increased in popularity this year. And the looks of streetwear and hip-hop clothing style have been popular for a long time. It isn’t hard to find a student wearing a Supreme hoodie or an OFF WHITE belt at Mason.
Other brands associated with the trend are Gucci, Palace, Vetements, and Balenciaga. Each of these brands have steep prices. Cheaper hoodies can obviously be found from H&M, American Eagle, or Hollister, but those don’t have the same feel as a name-brand fashion label.
The slang term for wearing such labels seems is “flexing.” In a few of my interviews, students used this word when they referred to showing off their clothing.
“I like the clothes I wear,” senior Gus Abruzzi said. “I don’t try to dress as if I’m flexing, I just wear what I like.”
“At the end of the day they’re just clothes,” junior Vlad Munteanu said. “If they were damaged, I wouldn’t be pissed.”
It’s easy to find counterfeit clothing on sites like Taobao (owned by Alibaba). Both Munteanu and Abruzzi didn’t really seem to have strong opinions regarding these counterfeit websites. They explained that they thought that most people in Mason wouldn’t purchase real merchandise from the original and costly brands.
“I don’t mind as long as they aren’t flexing [the counterfeit merchandise],” Munteanu said. “Most people in Mason can’t or don’t want to pay such a price for the real thing.”
