Urban wear is bold, fresh and expressive of the hunger and in-your-face fearlessness of the hip hop generation. Urban clothing is distinguished by trendy looks, controversial designs and an up-to-the-minute look.

Urban Clothing Design

From the very beginning designers of urban wear have been concerned with creating "designer" fashions. Just looking "urban" is not enough. New designs must be aggressive, flambouyant and in your face. Of course urban clothing must always look youthful, but at the same time most urban clothing designs have been serious in their own way and always conscious of projecting an "I got my issues" image.

Some recent trends in urban wear have been more lighthearted - acknowledging the showmanship built into urban wear - that the attitude is more imagined than real. As designs started to migrate from the rapper-inspired, rapper-owned design shops to more mainstream labels the transformation was inevitable. It is just a bit much for mainstream labels to make out as though they are downtrodden and unhappy with the status quo. They are the status quo.

Brands such as Rocawear, Ecko and Akademiks have long been identified with the urban wear trend and are well known for fashion designs born out of the street culture that was the source of both rap and urban wear designs. In fact many of the original urban wear labels were founded by rappers themselves. Like most celebrities they were simply trying to use their image and notoriety to make money selling things.

Inevitably, newer companies such as Vokal have stepped in and modified the world of urban wear to include fleece loungewear, high end velour, denim, and striking, brightly colored athletic jerseys. Another company, Baby Phat, takes a different approach. Their thing is to create a blend of hip hop style and uptown metropolitan fashion. The result is a more refined urban look that well to do trendies can buy into.

This is nothing new. Co-opting fringe trends is what the fashion industry does best. It is simply trying to cash in on the way different groups of consumers follow different trends. And it only makes sense to go after people with the time and money to pay high prices to make a suitable impression.

Wholesale Urban Clothing

On the other hand, the fact that the urban clothing market is changing rapidly has resulted in the development of a significant market for wholesale urban clothing. Since urban wear designs turn over quickly and manufacturers have to stay ahead of the curve, they are quite prepared to move large volumes of last month's designs for cut rate prices.

This allows enterprising clothing merchants to buy up sizable lots of over stocked items and sell them in large quantities to retailers and directly to consumers - often on the internet. These items sell for significantly lower prices than you can find in retail urban wear specialty stores.

Some web sites will even sell wholesale urban clothing in quantities as small as four or five. This allows consumers to buy three or four items for the price of one. And it is ideal for people seriously interested in staying with the fashion trends. They can essentially replace their whole wardrobe for a fraction of what it would cost if they bought their clothing from trendy retailers.