‘Fresh Dressed’ review: Tracking hip hop's rise in fashion, with insights from Diddy, Kanye West and more

“Fresh Dressed” tells way more than just the story of hip-hop fashion, though that’s a pretty great tale all by itself.

Director Sasha Jenkins weaves the fashion into the musical culture, providing a much more insightful look at what and why.

She picks up the hip-hop part of the story around 1970, with the statements that New York street gangs made through outfits and colors.

A few years later, when street culture embraced microphones and sound systems, style remained essential.

Harlem native Dapper Dan, a designer who brought ethnic credibility to high fashion.

From the Kangol hats down to the baggy pants and the right shoes, it was essential to look as fresh as you sounded.

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Years later, outfits like Phat Pharm and Sean Jean forced their way into the fashion mainstream, just as the beat of hip-hop became the core beat of popular music.

But what makes “Fresh Dressed” so valuable and instructive is that Jenkins doesn’t simply recount that ascent.

The jean jacket was graffiti art’s first canvas. Above, on the street in Brooklyn circa 1983, from “Fresh Dressed.”

She talks with designers, artists and fans about how and why it happened, how folks like New York’s famed Dapper Dan “blackenized” high-toned looks.

Like musical styles, fashion styles also arrive, peak and fade. So Jenkins talks with stars like Diddy and Kanye West about how getting to the top may be no more difficult than finding a way to stay there — to be more than this year’s flavor.

At the same time, she also traces black fashion style back to early jazz musicians and gospel choirs, so we know this is a long-running train. She shows us a particularly scenic part of the ride.