A real pet peeve of mine is the usage of the word ‘Urban’, mainly applicable to music and has become an umbrella term for grime, hip hop, uk garage, r’n’b….anything really that is fronted by a black person is supposedly urban. It’s as silly as the term ‘indie’. When you are faced with a magazine like RWD which the Independent has described as an ‘urban music and style’ magazine, again I scratch my head. What RWD is a highly distributed music and style FREE magazine, in the vein of Vice but with less snide and a bigger focus on high quality content. In its bid to gain higher fashion stakes, you get an editorial like this out in its September issue that I don’t think can possibly be described as ‘urban’ whatever that is supposed to mean. Unless ‘urban’ really means progressive as the bulk of the editorial has gone out on a limb and the stylist has borrowed from the stars of this year’s Graduate Fashion Week leaving me trying to figure out who the designs were by. Googling each name, University of Northampton, De Monteford in Leicester, RCA and Rochester came up and it makes me gutted that I didn’t get to go at all to any of the shows at GFW. It’s a high-octane fix of push-the-boat, OTT fashion that is without restraint and RWD have played up to all of that in this flashy editorial shot by Jamie Nelson and styled by Richard Shoyemi who has a very distinctive personal style (you can’t really miss him…).
Anyhow, RWD has upped its circulation so if you delve into the murky waters of non-descript ‘Urban’ areas, you may be able to pick it up.
Urban and Indie really do make me feel sick – I work in commercial high-steet fashion, and the ammount of times I hear people who think they know-it-all use those words to describe a look really frustrates me. GRRRR. I hate fashion buzz-words, they are sometimes essential, but make our industry seem even shallower than it already is.
Arrgh! Urban Shmurban. I am so over that.
The styling and the clothes look incredible. Must track down this mag.
Definetly hate the descriptor urban, but love this editorial. Maybe they think it is urban because it was shot in the city?
I’m feeling the same way, urban seems to be blanket term for all things pertaining to a certain ethnic group…albeit this particular group has been the pioneer for so much in the mainstream.
It’s music and fashion, annoying buzz words are par for the course. I don’t really have a problem with “urban” as the genres they’re covering live in such a wide arc that you aren’t left with much thread besides them sharing a pulse and coordinates within city limits. As an editor, a lot of times you just have to call it a day and use something that’s convenient, contains a tidy a group of relevant associations and offends the least amount of people possible. Just curious, what would you call it? Anything short of “Grime, hip hop, uk garage, r’n’b…” is a stretch isn’t it? And it’s been a long time since “indie” referred just to independent music. You can compile a qualifying checklist but in the end, if it sounds like college radio or underground, or looks thrift store bought it’s safe to call it indie. Indie is as an aesthetic title. Welcome to the English language, repetition and usage over time is the rule. Nah, these two don’t bother me. Reading “wearable” on the other hand gives me an epic brain wedgie.
okay this editorial may not be deservedly ‘urban’, but my it is fierce!
i love the mcdonalds image..makes a nice change from all the dreamy, ethereal editorials that seem so popular lately.
young-shields xx
Those sorts of words are thrown around so often these days, I certainly couldn’t confidently describe what any of them supposedly mean.
Love the image outside of the macdonalds in the editorial!
im not normally into that sort of “urban” type thing, but that editorial is really cool 🙂
I hate the use of Urban the same way I hate the use of Man.
I think i get urban….. basically a girl wearing fashionable clothes in the city, the city being key obv – an editorial backdrop that isn’t green in the slightest and has loads of urban things like cars, bright lights and fast food chains. Christ, to think the term has been undefined for so long, doh.
i just thought urban meant “city” as opposed to suburban. or perhaps “inner city”? but ya the use of indie- blah. though i use it in tags sometimes.
Spot on. I am confused as to what urban is supposed to conotate now…on the weekend I was reading something described as urban which was as sanitary and safe as could be and I just went…”huh”?!
It comes across as cheesy ad speak to me.
I don’t have a problem with urban, except for it’s misuse. However, ‘indie’ bugs me for than a fat lady in a bandage skirt. This editorial is “fierce” by the way… now “fierce” that’s another buzz word issue.
hey…totally off topic but, have you seen this?
http://www.rodeo.net/agnes-b/2008/08/21/perry-ellis/
miuccia copies perry ellis 1992?
Well, I guess this is urban in the true meaning of the word, i.e. in the city. I really like the editorial!!
I work at a company called the All Media Guide (the websites are allmusic and allmovie) and we maintain databases of albums and movies with info like genres and styles (and reviews and all that). We deal with the problem of the “urban” and “indie” classifications a LOT.
The problem is that at first these words are used to describe a piece of art literally (i.e., Boyz n the Hood is actually about life in an urban area), but often times a piece of art like this will set off a trend and start informing other artists. They’ll take inspiration from the various elements of the original art, and the prominent word that was used to describe the original art will keep being used, even though the literal element it was first describing isn’t even there anymore. (i.e., American movies about black people being called “urban” even if it doesn’t take place in the city, or lo-fi music on a major label still being called “indie”).
On the one hand, this is just the nature of the English language, and we can’t expect words not to evolve and become nonliteral. But on the other hand, these particular words can be pretentious (“indie” confers credibility), racist (“urban” implies poverty), or just plain misleading.
This is way too long and I’m sorry for babbling but, to summarize — we still don’t have it figured out.
I love the shots and clothes in this magazine but i would say the only thing that looks urban is the setting the clothes definatley arent infact they look quite glam!
awesome pictures !
hi, sussie, i would like to ask your help,. where (web pages and magazines) can i find the best inofrmation about summer 2009 shows, i need to do a trend job for school, i m sure you know best where to find this info, would you help me please? wait for you reply in this post.. thanks very much, catalina.
You have raised some interesting issues.
I wonder if the term “urban” started in the United States, because the label seems to make some sense here. The typical pattern in the US cities for the last 20 years has been for white people to move to the suburbs, leaving urban area dwellers to be mostly black, hispanic and other minorities.
As you know, this is where a lot of original music and fashions have developed.
This reminds me that I absolutely must buy some black lipstick – I think I wore it as a 13-yr-old goth too, but AW08 is the chance to do it properly: fashionably! Am thinking Barry m – there’s going to be a Lancome black gloss, and I think I’ve seen a Bobbi Brown dark grey one, but I can’t see how a gloss would provide intense-enough colour. Besides, with scary tones like this I wouldn’t trust gloss to stay put, only a lippie. Susie, you say you’re not much of a makeup wearer, but do you ever like to pick up on catwalk trends like these to finish off an outfit?
Cammila. wow. that is informative. and i would say covers it. thanks for info. and you & your blog are cute!!
Hey,
Susie THANKS so much for writing what you did. You have no idea the struggle that we at RWD have with perception from both advertisers, marketing people and other media. Despite our achievements as an independently produced title (one that has an ABC of 77,000 meaning we’re in the Top 5 most read music publications but hey!) we are constantly labelled as ‘urban’ when we are, like you said, basically a youth lifestyle title that writes about fashion, grime, hip hop, indie, pop, bassline, film, gadgets and all that’s in between. We try and reflect the tastes of many young people today regardless of their colour, family income or postcode.
Unfortunately this country, despite priding itself on having a ‘melting pot’ culture is still pretty ignorant. It’s a constant battle for us to get advertisers to spend (although they’re always desperate to get editorial) because we’re too ‘urban.’ Read into that what you will but worrying that they refuse to spend on an ‘urban’ publication.
But thanks for highlighting the issue and thanks to all the comments above regarding Richard Shoyemi’s and Jamie Nelson’s amazing shoot.
Hattie Collins, Editor, RWD
PS: I just clicked through to the Independent article and I must say that Ian Burrell did a fantastic job with that piece. The fact he even wrote about us when every other media publication basically ignores us, is fantastic. Plus it was written back in 2006 and we were much more a traditionally ‘urban’ or black music and lifestyle magazine then so I have no beefs with the Indy. But the rest of my comments regarding the perception and ignorance toward RWD totally still stands
I haven’t read RWD in a very long time (heck, I used to collect them), but by the looks of those images they have stepped up their game A LOT with the fashion ed’s.
That definition of urban totally annoys me, too.
i was contacted by richard shoyemi when he was putting this shoot together, he took my garments and never returned two of my garments which i had painstakingly beaded every night for over a month, and he stopped answering his phone after he told me that he had no idea where my stuff were. do not trust him and don’t give him anything.
The thing is, the term ‘urban’ makes black or ethnically linked things (music/fashion etc)a bit more palletable. Whilst I hate it, I sometimes find myself using it just for an easy life when trying to explain the type of style I like.
RICHARD SHOYEMI IS A THIEF.
I LENT him Two pieces from my final collection that were very expensive and time consiming to make and he has not returned them. He is not only the youngest stylist in the world but he is also the most immature! Do not trust him.