Event
Alfonso Ribeiro with The Alumni4Life Founders
Apr
As you look at this picture with Alfonso Ribeiro, don’t take your eyes off the DC Fashion Look. My uncle (Ziggy) who grew up in the 1200 block of G street one block off of H straight back in the day would like to dabble into the DC Fashion:
DC Style; the H Street Connection—-by Ziggy
What is style, what is stylish, what is; dam, you look good in them clothes you are wearing… ever been told that?
Let me go back in time a little bit and tell you a tale of growing up in Washington, DC in the 50’s, living in the H Street corridor, northeast DC. …
Those were great days then, working class people living and enjoying life and doing all the right things. The H Street corridor stretch from 15th & H, intersecting with Benning and Bladensburg Roads and Florida and Maryland Avenues all the way to 3rd and H and Union Station. As a youngster growing up everything seemed normal but as I became a teenager there was something different…something unique, there was something about how you dressed.
When my older brothers and sisters and their friends were going out on Friday nights and the weekends, the clothes they wore were out of sight, they were knockouts, they sent a message that they have arrived and were getting this party started, and they were stylish.
DC has style but not to take away from others I (we) can say New York has style, LA has style, Chicago has style, Philly has style also and a lot more other places has style but this is not about the other places this is about DC… H Street during this time was as busy as downtown DC, I’m talking about F Street and the surrounding areas such as 7th thru 14th street, D street thru New York Avenue and beyond, and because for one reason or another you may have to go downtown but H Street serve us very well, very well indeed.
Whatever you wear be it sportswear, casual clothing or dress a lot of us want it to be something that looks good and be comfortable also and something that is trendier for the long haul meaning this style is forever, not a fad or just for the moment and there has been a few of them in the past.
Yes style was and still is a big thing, in clothing for men there was gabardine slacks and sweater shirts, knits shirts, button up shirts and sport shirts, there were khaki pants and Chuck Taylor’s All-Star tennis shoes. There were Dobb’s and Stetson’s hats, berets, Champion’s Sportswear, Peter Jackets, Ban Lon sweater shirts, trench coats, leather coats, even the field jacket was style. There was even a boot, a right of passing so to speak; the brogue or the brogan, a rough suede ankle boot that all of us worn back then, a lot of them were personally dyed using felt marker pens to put your unique signature on them, selecting your color or colors, this was done with pride amongst your friends or comrades.
Today what you wear says a lot about you, you wear nice clothes, you dress nice and/or I want to look good in what I am wearing (all the time), be it casual, dress or sport.
