The Style Evolution of Tyler, the Creator

hey everyone welcome back to thread education in this video we're going to be talking about the style evolution of tyler the creator just to clarify we will be talking a bit about his journey through the music industry but the focus is going to be on how his sense of fashion has changed over the course of his career and if you ask me tyler has had one of the most interesting style evolutions out of any rapper the way that he dressed at the beginning of his career is completely different from the way that he dresses now and today we're going to be breaking down how that happened as well as some of his best fits along the way so without further ado let's get into it this is the style evolution of tyler the creator in 1991 tyler was born in ladera heights california his interest in music began at a very early age as he started listening to musicians like erica badou d'angelo and pharrell in fact it was seeing pharrell play piano on behind the scenes dvd footage that made tyler want to learn to play it himself as time went on he realized that he wanted to try his hand at becoming a musician and so in 2007 he joined forces with the likes of beats left brain casey veggies and jasper dolphin to form odd future wolfgang kill them all better known as odd future together they began putting out music including the odd future tape volume 1 which came out in 2008 and over time other members began joining the group this included but was not limited to frank ocean taco earl sweatshirt domogenesis mike g nachelle smith sid the kid and lionel as you can tell the group was pretty big but i should note that not everyone in odd future was a musician more than anything it was just a group of kids from la who would skate ride bikes and mess around with making beats but that all changed on december 25th of 2009 because that is when tyler released his debut mixtape bastard he had been working on the mixtape here and there for several years by the time that it was released and when it finally came out it created a fair amount of buzz online some of this buzz was thanks to the album's unique sound but it was also thanks to tyler's controversial lyrics historic and aggressive tone led many to classify the mixtape as horror core rap and while some appreciated it others reduced it to nothing more than shock value whatever the case may be it did get a lot of people talking and it was even ranked as number 32 on pitchfork's best 50 albums of the year list that may not sound too crazy but remember that this was the debut mixtape of an 18 year old kid making beats in his room now it's not like the project catapulted him into fame and he would even continue working his job at starbucks throughout part of 2010 but what it did do was move him closer to the spotlight and that's why many of our early photos of tyler are from this time period so if we take a look at some of these photos the main thing that jumps out is that he dresses like a skater and that makes sense because as i said him and the other members of odd future were very into skating for the most part this meant graphic tees vans and skinny jeans but what stands out to me is the amount of supreme he's wearing supreme is of course a popular skate brand but he can be seen wearing it in just about every single photo so obviously he was to some extent already interested in style and i have to think that a lot of that came from being a member of the skate scene but there is one other thing that stands out to me in this photo again he's wearing supreme but you'll also notice that he's wearing a customized gray hoodie as you can see he took some sharpies and wrote the word wolf in reference to the name odd future wolfgang and the reason that i bring this up is that it's really the first time we see him customizing clothes in his own unique style the way that he stylized the word pretty much sums up his whole aesthetic back then colorful wacky and at the same time gritty this was still very early on but he was clearly beginning to develop his own unique look and in retrospect this was just the beginning in february of 2011 tyler released his single yonkers and it changed everything like i said before he was already getting some attention online but the music video for the song got everyone's attention the first thing that i want to talk about is that in this video you can see tyler wearing a rather eccentric short sleeve collared shirt and a five panel supreme hat as we already know he was a big fan of supreme and these five panel hats would become a staple in his wardrobe as well as a staple of the odd future movement now even though it's just a hat i don't want to downplay a significance here because there's something you have to remember yonkers went extremely viral thanks to its grimy beat vulgar lyrics and provocative music video so this was his first real introduction to the public eye and he made that introduction wearing supreme fans took notice and so did supreme this was around the time that they started giving him free pieces and from this point forward he pretty much became one of the faces of the brand in fact he raps about getting free supreme in the opening track of his debut studio album goblin which released in may of 2011 so we know that it was at the forefront of his mind as much as he loved supreme it wasn't the only brand you'd see him wearing and this is where things really start to get interesting in 2011 when odd future was really starting to take off they developed one of these strongest cult followings imaginable earlier i made a reference to what i call the odd future movement and that's really what it was their music sounded different they dressed different and they went against the grain in just about every way possible whether or not you were a fan there was absolutely no denying that they were the most interesting thing happening in rap at the time so a lot of kids myself included wanted to be involved in this so-called odd future movement and one of the easiest ways to feel involved was dressing like the members of the group this set off a wave of kids skaters and non-skaters alike that began wearing supreme five panel hats bright colors vans basically anything and everything they'd see tyler wearing that's when odd futures saw an opportunity to make their own clothing and that's exactly what they did now technically speaking all the future the brand really started off as tour merge they printed a few t-shirts with their signature donut logo and would sell them at concerts but over time they expanded their offering to include a few other pieces and before long it had grown into a true brand it had grown so much in fact that in 2011 they hosted an odd future pop-up shop on fairfax in la which happens to be the same street that supreme's la store is located on even though the pop-up was only supposed to last a few weeks it ended up being so wildly successful that they decided to keep it open permanently and so that is how we got the odd future store on fairfax this was a major turning point for tyler and the crew because they went from being influencers to being taste makers they were no longer just wearing whatever they thought was cool but instead they were now making whatever they thought was cool and if you're curious what that looked like it was a lot of donuts cats and tie-dye and listen i'm not here to tell you that odd future merch was the gold standard of streetwear back in 2011 but what i am telling you is that the fans went crazy for this stuff yes a lot of the pieces were cool but more than anything else owning the merch was just a way to let the world know you were into odd future and trust me i know because i had one of these donut shirts and i walked around trying to show it off the way that people today walk around trying to show off their v-lone shirts overall there was no denying the success of odd futures brand as they grew they formed a partnership with vans and then in an effort to expand they began selling their clothes at zoomies at first hearing that might make you think that they were selling out but you have to remember that at the end of the day it kind of was just merch and what they really wanted was to get it into the hands of as many fans as possible so yes the brand did lose a bit of its exclusivity but that's all right because as it turns out tyler had something else up his sleeve in june of 2011 he officially launched a new brand called golf wing the whole group had worked on the odd future merch but golf wing a play on the name wolfgang was really meant to be tyler's personal passion project and his intention was for it to be somewhat of a higher end clothing line it still shared many similarities to odd future merch but this time around tyler wanted to treat it like a real brand and that's why he partnered up with graphic designer phil toselli who became the brand's lead art director and together they would create full seasonal collections and release professionally shot lookbooks if you go to golfwing.com which i will link in the description you can actually go through every lookbook the brand has ever put out so definitely go check that out if you're interested now between 2011 and 2012 when golfline was first starting out tyler was still wearing a ton of supreme and a ton of odd future merch but in 2013 the year that he released his album wolf we started to see him almost exclusively in golf lane in fact on both the official album cover and the alternate album cover he's wearing a golf wing hat and in the music videos for this album he's mostly wearing golf wing products so it's safe to say that at this point in time he had entered a new stage in his style evolution under golf wing he now had the freedom to make and wear whatever he wanted and as it turns out his fans wanted it too as seems to happen with just about everything that tyler does golfline quickly developed a cult following and some bigger names in the industry started to take notice that's why in 2013 he partnered with vans to release four pairs of golf wing branded shoes now this collab may seem fairly simple but you have to understand that this was quite the full circle moment for tyler having grown up skating his shoe of choice had always been vans and even at this stage in his career that was pretty much all he was wearing so for him to now have his own vans collaboration was a major accomplishment at the same time this collab was a major accomplishment for the brand because it helped push the name golfland further into the mainstream and it set the course for the explosion and popularity that would take place in the next few years in 2014 golf wing and vans released a few more vans this time in more eye-grabbing colorways and then in 2015 the year that tyler released his album cherry bomb they teamed up again but decided to mix things up by adding more interesting color blocking a checkered pattern and a golf logo to the tongue i'll also note that the insults of the shoe feature the now iconic golf length flameprint which first made an appearance in the spring summer 2015 collection and this print was actually featured on the cover art for cherry bomb all over prints are something that the brand really specializes in and it seems as if each season we see a new one whether it's the flame print polka dots cheetah print or perhaps something even more out of the box now speaking of out of the box in 2016 tyler did something that he had never done before he hosted a fashion show this came as a surprise to some people because even though he runs his own brand he has in the past said that he finds the world of fashion disgusting so i guess you could say he's not the type of guy you'd expect to see at fashion week regardless tyler wouldn't do something if he wasn't going to put his heart into it and that's exactly what he did trust me when i say that i've seen a fair amount of fashion shows and tyler's was genuinely very impressive especially considering that it was his first time doing one there were a number of skits integrated with pre-recorded videos live skating a live musical performance and to top it all off at the very end of the show he made a huge announcement he was starting his own shoe company for some context here everything appeared to have been going great with vans and you can even see a number of vans in the show but as we now know there was some tension building behind the scenes tyler would later confirm that he discontinued his relationship with vans because they were limiting his creativity and that's why he decided to create his own shoe company golf le fleur in fact in the opening skit of the fashion show tyler is picking an outfit out of his closet and you can actually see him skip over his golf wing vans before deciding on a previously unseen pair as we would find out at the end of the show this pair was the first in what would become a long line of collaborations between golf le fleur and converts so let's backtrack a little bit to understand how this happened when tyler first decided to make his own shoe he wanted to do it independently and so he hired an overseas manufacturer to create the first samples this didn't go far however because when he got the samples back they were basically unwearable and for a brief moment it was seeming like this idea of his wasn't going to work out but then none other than pharrell williams came to save the day tyler and pharrell are close friends and collaborators so when pharrell learned that tyler was struggling to make a shoe he introduced him to paul middlemen the creative director of apparel at converse more than anything else the point of this introduction was for tyler to seek some advice from someone with experience in the industry but after talking a bit they saw an opportunity to work together and so that is how their partnership began the first shoe to come out of this collab was the golf left flare one star and let me just say it was an instant hit he took a classic silhouette the converse one star and really made it his own with the most notable feature being the flower on the side of the shoe the name lefleur is french for the flower and from the very beginning flowers have been a key part of golf lefler's branding i'll quickly mention that it hadn't been released yet but he put these shoes out while he was working on his 2017 album flower boy so i guess you could say that this was sort of a hint of things to come now since the original one star came out we've seen several variations in both color and material as well as additional models including the chuck 70 and most recently the giano in my personal opinion this is one of the best partnerships in the shoe game right now the materials are always insane the colorways are always perfect and every small detail down to the stitching is carefully crafted if nothing else this is just proof of what tyler can do when you give him the green light and i'm really looking forward to seeing how this partnership evolves in the coming years maybe we'll even see some new partnerships as well like the recent golf left flair lacoste collab and hey this is just a shot in the dark but personally i'd really like to see tyler work with nico the two of them have a relationship that dates back to as far as 2013 and nego's brand human made seems to perfectly complement the aesthetic of golf left flair in fact in 2020 nego gave some of his closest friends personalized varsity jackets that read i know nigo and tyler was fortunate enough to receive one of these jackets with his name embroidered in it so obviously the two of them have to some extent been in communication recently and i think that we can all agree that we'd love to see them work together so by the end of 2017 tyler had taken his brand golf wing to new heights he had his first fashion show and he launched his own shoe company refusing to settle however he was yet again about to enter a new stage in his style evolution everyone who steps foot on the red carpet at the grammys gets dressed up for the occasion but in 2018 tyler really stole the show he pulled up wearing a customized pair of golf left flare converse a blue trench coat a louis vuitton monogram scarf and perhaps most notably a russian fur cap known natively as an ushenka this fit went viral as soon as it hit the internet both because it's an objectively cool outfit and because it was a side of tyler that we had never really seen before wearing an ushenko was a far cry from his typical five panel hat but the part that really got everyone talking was when he took the hat off to reveal his leopard print inspired hair after this appearance at the grammys and during the lead up to his 2019 album igor we would see tyler moving even further away from his streetwear roots as he began wearing chinos sweaters cardigans flat caps bucket hats and even full suits he basically just started dressing like a super classy old guy and hey i'm not knocking it i actually really like the direction that tyler style has been going in i just think it's crazy that this is the same guy who was wearing supreme box logos and vans just a few years earlier now the interesting question here is what inspired this drastic change in style well we know it wasn't a stylist because he said publicly that he doesn't have a stylist but it had to have been something and one simple explanation could be that he's just maturing tyler will always be tyler but there's no denying that a lot has changed over time and if you look at the way that he dresses the music he makes and the way that he carries himself today at the age of 30 it's almost hard to believe that it's the same 19 year old kid that made yonkers nearly a decade ago so yes i do think that getting older has played a part in his style evolution but why exactly is it moving in the direction that it is it's obviously very inspired but where is this inspiration coming from well again this is a shot in the dark but i'm really starting to think that tyler is turning himself into a character from a wes anderson film now if you're not familiar with wes anderson that might sound a bit crazy and even if you are familiar with wes anderson that might sound a bit crazy but allow me to explain wes anderson is an american filmmaker who's best known for movies like the grand budapest hotel the royal tenon bombs and moonrise kingdom the stories told in these movies are by themselves fantastic but the thing that anderson is really known for is his attention to detail and ability to create stunning visuals i mean literally every single frame in one of his movies looks like it could be the movie poster so it goes without saying that people are really attracted to the aesthetic of his work now i just mentioned that anderson pays great attention to detail and that includes fashion each and every character is carefully suited to fit the role that they're playing and by giving them their own signature pieces like a headband or a beanie it makes them much more relatable to the audience so where does tyler fit into all of this well let me start by saying that tyler has been praising wes anderson for years as one of his favorite directors many people even believe that his video for the song cu again was a direct reference to the wes anderson film the life aquatic with steve zazoo which could of course explain why the music video is staged out at sea we would see even more music videos in this style with the release of igor and i'm talking symmetrical wide shots warm color palettes even the architecture it all screams wes anderson and if you still aren't convinced tyler showed up to the 2020 grammys dressed as a lobby boy in reference to zero the lobby boy from the grand budapest hotel however rather than dressing in purple he decided on an outfit that matched the color of the hotel itself so back to igor the reason that this album was an interesting period in tyler's style evolution is that he literally got into character and played a role as igor he would wear different colored suits but would always keep the signature bowl cut and glasses obviously this isn't how he dresses in real life but it's an example of him using style to help tell the story of his album and right now he's preparing to do just that once again on june 16th of 2021 tyler released the music video for his new song lumberjack and subsequently announced that his album call me if you get lost will be releasing on june 25th yet again it appears as if tyler is creating another character or at least some sort of alias on the cover art for the album we see an id for tyler baudelaire the id shows his real birth date and his real place of birth but from what i've read so far the name bob lair is a reference to the french poet charles bogdler and in every visual we've seen so far tyler's wearing a blue ushanka that reminds me a lot of the one he wore back at the 2018 grammys other than the ushanka though it seems like he's wearing a lot of the same everyday pieces we've seen him wearing in the past few years including chinos cardigans and leopard print shirts i'm really looking forward to hearing the album but i'm also really looking forward to learning more about this tyler baudelaire character and seeing what tyler chooses to do with his style he's definitely building some sort of narrative but we just don't know what that is quite yet and after the discussion we just had about wes anderson i'm wondering if someday tyler may even release his own film i'm not saying that it's going to happen with this album but it's something that he's talked about in the past and with his affinity for storytelling i'm sure it's something that he'd be great at so that is just about everything i wanted to touch on for the style evolution of tyler the creator if you can't tell already i'm a huge fan and judging by how many of you asked for this video i know that a lot of you are as well regardless hopefully you learned something new because all things considered it's a pretty crazy story tyler went from a kid drawing on hoodies with sharpies to building a cult following becoming one of the faces of supreme launching his own merch creating his own clothing line golf wang partnering with major companies like vans and converse hosting his own fashion show and all the while putting out critically acclaimed albums anyways that is all for this video let me know which style evolution i should do next and as always if you liked this video and want to see more like it remember to like comment subscribe and other than that i will see you next time that was cool um well i guess we're done uh so thanks wait wait i got i'm about to talk i'm about to talk wait i wanna talk

Channel: Threaducation

Views: 246,116

Keywords: Tyler the creator, Tyler the creator fashion, odd future, Tyler the creator interview, Tyler the creator call me if you get lost, golf wang, streetwear, fashion, Tyler the creator album, Tyler the creator new album, lumberjack, Tyler the creator lumberjack, Tyler baudelaire, the sun beaming, side street, BROWN SUGAR SALMON, wusyaname, Tyler

Id: 14CKRHkCl8w

Length: 21min 30sec (1290 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 21 2021