We are wondering, what constitutes a truly unique Afro-urban style, or does it even exist? Where is Afro-fused wear in relation to urban gear? What is now called urban wear has for some reason become associated with the other confusing term "gangster fashion". If this is truly the one and the same, then is gangster fashion nothing else but guns and crime, or what is popularly called street life/thug life? A lot of terms have been used to describe hip hop fashion by those that want to curve their own unique identity for their styles.

To us, Afro Fusion is hip-hop fashion, but more biased on what we call have trademarked as conscious clothing. In our hope to create our own true identity, we have come up with what we think is Afro-urban wear to create a space for our designs at, www.afrofusion.net, within the wider urban/street wear market. We have fused what we are, African, with what we have learned from our everyday experiences and the environment that we leave in. We have fused everything that has influenced our culture to our style; punk, rock, western culture, conflicts, thoughts, ideas etc., to truly relay what has shaped us as a people. When i say people, am talking in terms of the greater human race, in instinctively the African diaspora. Often times, our identity is shaped by bias, bias for what we don't know, and bias for the little that we think we know. In order to truly come up with a reflective Afro-Urban ideal, we have had to accept the worst of Africa and the best borrowed from the west; I mean if gangster life (mugging, crime, gangs, etc) is hip/hype in America, then isn't famine, wars, failures, etc as much a child of hip/hype in Africa?

When we show images of violence, conflict, pain, death etc on our products, it is not to gratify the act as is common with the present "gangster" ID, but rather to create awareness, a purposeful consciousness of events, evils and inhumanity of our spirits, with the sole intention to create solutions and take action to resolve these.

We look at ourselves as agents of change, tasked with identifying and highlighting that which is among us, the good and the bad, to create change or celebrate the positive. Afro Fusion, is everything Africa and every that is not African. It is acceptance of the true differences and influences in each one of us.

We refuse to be ethnic, stamped with Afrocentrism, but we do accept that we are what we are and more. Are we Hip enough to be considered "hip hop", but are we raw enough to be considered "gangster", are we high-end enough to be considered "couture"?

In the larger scheme of fashion, where will we be classified? Give us you take on what we are trying to achieve.

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Bubba
www.afrofusion.net