How Hip-Hop’s Golden Age Inspired Amiri’s A/W23 Show

Shown earlier this year in Paris, Amiri’s Autumn/Winter 2023 show paid homage to the transformative power of hip-hop music – and its accompanying sartorial style – in 90s New York. DJ Premier – the prolific American producer and former member of the hip-hop duo Gang Starr – performed a mashup of his greatest hits live at the show with help from The Badder Band. As models walked around a circular runway made in the image of an enormous vinyl record – grooves and all – live instrumental riffs on Nas’s N.Y. State of Mind and more iconic hip-hop tracks reverberated throughout the space.

Building on the hip-hop roots of their A/W23 runway show, Amiri has now released a new campaign titled Icon starring Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) and Talib Kweli of the legendary Brooklyn musical duo Black Star. Dressed up in elevated 90s classics like vegan leather paperboy caps and roomy wool overcoats, the duo – who released a new full-length record last year for the first time in 24 years – are perfect as the brand’s stylish, socially-minded muses.

It makes sense that the brand’s A/W23 collection and resulting campaign were inspired by hip-hop; since founding his eponymous brand in an LA basement in 2014, music has been at the heart of everything Mike Amiri does. As a lifelong fan of DJ Premier, Mike first began gathering inspiration for the collection while hanging out in Premier’s Queens studio in New York. The idea of sampling – a common hip-hop practice where musicians reuse other’s already-existing songs – was integral to the design elements of the collection, with classic tailoring silhouettes riffed on and updated with artistic, deconstructed flair.

Styled by AnOther’s fashion director-at-large (menswear) Ellie Grace Cumming, models stepped out onto the vinyl floor in varsity jackets, wool cashmere coats and glittering suits sartorially evocative of 1950s Americana, the Beat Generation, and 90s hip-hop. With loose, slouchy proportions, the garments – finished in tactile cashmere, silk, shearling, faux fur and brushed wool – evoked the power of mixing casual and formal dress; most looks were topped off with trainers and newsboy caps – a 90s favourite – adding an informal edge. Some models even carried Amiri-branded record crates under arm, bringing the collection’s affiliation with hip-hop and its analogue origins full circle. And now, with a campaign starring hip-hop’s most politically conscious duo, Amiri proves that the genre is not just about sound but also about style. 

Amiri Autumn/Winter 2023 collection is available to shop now.