This feature is a part of Complex's Pusha T Week.
Pusha T answers his phone in a plush hotel room in Beverly Hills, out of breath after returning from a day spent on the move. While a rigorous promotional circuit to hype up My Name Is My Name takes up a lot of the G.O.O.D. Music member's time these days, nostalgia easily transports him to a time when he was doing a different type of moving back in his hometown of Virginia Beach. No matter what, then or now, one of the new leaders of style and flow in the rap game has been doing it all for one reason: to stunt.
CLICK HERE TO BUY MY NAME IS MY NAME NOW.
RELATED: PUSHA T COVER STORY
RELATED: PUSHA T's 25 FAVORITE ALBUMS
This feature is a part of Complex's Pusha T Week.
Pusha T answers his phone in a plush hotel room in Beverly Hills, out of breath after returning from a day spent on the move. While a rigorous promotional circuit to hype up My Name Is My Name takes up a lot of the G.O.O.D. Music member's time these days, nostalgia easily transports him to a time when he was doing a different type of moving back in his hometown of Virginia Beach. No matter what, then or now, one of the new leaders of style and flow in the rap game has been doing it all for one reason: to stunt.
CLICK HERE TO BUY MY NAME IS MY NAME NOW.
RELATED: PUSHA T COVER STORY
RELATED: PUSHA T's 25 FAVORITE ALBUMS
11. Ale et Ange
Pusha T Says: "This is the way I support the brand, actually I don’t even wanna talk about it; can I send you an Instagram pic right now? Matter of fact, i don’t need to send you an Instagram pic, let me just text you this joint.
[A few moments later.]
"So, with Ale et Ange, the hats are just beautiful in looks. And it lets the whole world know you don’t give a fuck. When i think about matching, I’m gonna throw everything off with this. And the colors are not gonna go exactly together. They’re just not. Not with the outfit. Or if I’m just in one of my all black moods, and the reason I throw on a green, red, and yellow paneled hat for no fucking reason, it’s the pop of color that’s needed for every outfit and I think it just goes along with the rules of fashion today. It’s really no rules. And I don’t think that there’s a bolder way of saying that then putting it on top of your fuckin’ head."
10. Saint Laurent
Pusha T Says: "You can go from leather motorcycle jackets to bombers jackets to the footwear. Saint Laurent is everything that it’s supposed to be in it's just classy. You just can’t go wrong with the whole look. I don’t think it’s possible to fuck up Saint Laurent. You will always look classic in Saint Laurent to me. There’s nothing overly gaudy about it. You can put on the whole mannequin and it would be dope as FUCK. The whole mannequin if you want. It would be dope. As. FUCK. Yea, that’s really it for that."
9. Dries Van Noten
Let’s go buy it, sir. If we’re not going to go buy it, then we really can’t have these educated talks.
Pusha T Says: "Dries Van Noten is, of all the brands, the most understated to me. People overlook it. The pieces are incredible. From the denim shirts with the super-long tuxedo tail, to the new poncho-style sweater that people will see in the new ‘Sweet Serenade’ video. Just details that's the epitome of tailored and couture. The cut of it. It’s ill. And, once again, if you know then you know. If you don’t, then you’re forever asking, ‘Yo, that looks amazing on you. What is that?’
"At this point in my career and dealing with certain things like fashion, people have been taking the time to research it. And sometimes, people don’t know, but this is the age. Like this is the age where everybody is at the laptop and Googling and really looking it up trying to find it. And my thing now, moreso than anything is, dog, you really got to show people that this is a lifestyle to you. There are too many Google experts. I’m not into the Google experts. Let’s go buy it, sir. If we’re not going to go buy it, then we really can’t have these educated talks. We gotta buy it. And that’s my problem. So it’s like, me showing or me displaying something, like Dries, it’s only because I really feel it bruh. I love it. That’s the difference between now and how it used to be. You had to have it, bruh. When Biggie and Puff had them Versace shirts, the ones that they’re bringing back now, you had to have it, bruh. You didn’t have it, then you can’t really engage in the convo. Right now you can research and tell what’s the store who got it, the price and everything else, and you are now the king of youth. Nah. We have to buy. And it’s about bringing it back to that."
8. Balmain
Pusha T Says: "Simply because it is today, to me, the most arrogant of brands. First of all, the look of it is so royal. The extras, the details, are always so royal. People don’t know that Michael Jackson was fully dressed in Balmain. And to know that, and look at it at the rack of Max Fields, you’re like, ‘Oh shit, like, okay wait a minute.’ And like Michael was getting the extra shit. Like, super extra. It still had that pop factor on the rack.
You put it on and it’s already detailed extravagantly...you walk in and people understand immediately.
"Now that we’ve given our props, just the look of the clothes. Now the arrogance of the price. The arrogance in the number that’s never coming down, never. It’s not going down. So with that being said, it’s like, you put it on and it’s already detailed extravagantly, then to know the number accompanied with it, you walk in and people understand immediately. When I see the hoodie, I know it. Immediately. With $2,000 on the hoodie, all we know it. That’s it. That's $1,400 on the jeans. $1,424. So, when you put it on, it’s the statement.
"And let me tell you something, it ain’t no fake ballin’ in that statement. So there’s a prestige that comes with Balmain. I tell people all the time, I’m into fashion from a different standpoint. Like I’m really into fashion for the stunt. I’m into fashion like I was in high school, man. I want to have the Jordans first. I wanted to have the fresh whatever, at the time. It probably was the newest Snow Beach sweater. I wanted to have it first. This isn’t about first. This is just about the actually being able to. This is pulling no punches. This is the real."
7. Balenciaga
Pusha T Says: "Man, Balenciaga is describable by me as un-fuck-wittable. UN-FUCK-WITTABLE. What do you want to talk about? The shoe? The jackets? You want to go in the rock-inspired sweatshirts and tees? The jacket game and the shoe is so ill that it’s just, man. Balenciaga is sort of real deal. I just think it speaks to the hip-hop culture because we’ve always taken luxury and made it a part of our everyday life. We’ve always done it. Rick had the .38 in the Louis Vuitton pouch with the cableknit Gucci sweater on.
Balenciaga to me is drug dealer fashion. It just really is, I’m sorry. That’s how I feel.
"And it’s crazy because you can take Balenciaga shoes with tailored sweats and rock it like such. Or it can go from there to a true tailored pant or a denim. Like you can wear the shoes across the board, universally. The jackets are just as fly, cut just as ill. Balenciaga to me is drug dealer fashion. It just really is, I’m sorry. That’s how I feel. It is the equivalent to of what I think 2013 dope boy standard dress life is."
6. Alexander Wang
Pusha T Says: "Alexander Wang is another all-purpose brand to me. Very uniformal. The brand itself is very heavily based in comfort. You look so well put together and effortless at the same time with Alexander Wang. And like I said, to me, with where we are in the Instagram age, where fashion and social media have crossed paths so heavily and everything begins to look like the fuckin’ boat boy that puts on the whole Damier print Louis Vuitton hat, belt, shirt, jacket, pants and shoes. I’ll leave it that the main fashion house where they do house all those things and the motherfucker who has just enough money to go in and get all of it and his ass gets ALL OF IT.
"And in the age where a lot of it comes off like that, it can get put together so wrong, but Alexander Wang brings it back to an effortless couture. Funny thing is, the comfort will catch you. It’ll have you doing things in it. Like a lot of times I’ll say 'I need to be as comfortable as like I’m going to play basketball.' Even in the line, 'Givenchy fitting like it’s gym clothes,' you know, it’s honestly guys like Wang and Lim that make you feel like that."
5. En Noir
Pusha T Says: "En Noir is another brand that came on and just made a splash. Made a hell of a splash. They took a risk with leather. You know what I’m saying? They made those who didn’t think they could rock leather attempt it. They are that fresh that they made people attempt it.
"To me, En Noir is gonna be so much greater because they’ve done the hard part. They won doing sort of the unthinkable. They started with the leather and it just was overbearing. And they won with overbearing leather. Now, I just went to the show the other day, and man, the shit is phenomenal. Fabrics is just phenomenal, the prints, the colors, all of it is just phenomenal. I’m trying to get the things from the runway and all they have is medium sizes. I'm trying to shoot a video and they don’t have my size. It sucks. But, like I said, they’ve done the hard part and now I think it’s just gonna be a cakewalk for these guys because they’re all really talented and they all have a keen eye for fashion. Their taste level is up there, all of them."
4. 3.1 Phillip Lim
Pusha T Says: "Philip Lim is, to me, like the most comfortbale clothes EVER. His line is always the most comfortable, like, in the world. I put it on and it still feels just as comfortable as like I just put on pajamas. It’s just the fact that he takes things like sweats and makes them luxury. Makes them luxury, but at the same time you feel just as comfortable as wearing pajamas.
"And right now, just as far as style goes, for myself I’m sort of in a transitional period and lines like Philip Lim just make everything easier and make everything comfortable. And when you know, you know."
3. Marcelo Burlon
Pusha T Says: "The design factor in the tee. In the prints. With the new things they have with the sweatshirts. All of these things are just incredible. And i think that they're growing at such a rapid rate and making noise at such a rapid rate. They really took the printed tee to the next level to me.
"I think the three brands [Play Cloths, BBC and Marcelo Burlon] are all recognizable once you see it. In logo or in style, immediately."
2. Billionaire Boys Club
Pusha T Says: "The true style icon to me is Pharrell Williams. And what they’ve created and continue to create, to just raise the bar for a brand that is rich in quality and rich in a standard. It’s probably the go-to streetwear brand.
"I want people to know, like I do this as the student. I am 100% a student of Pharrell Williams. Style student; Pharrell Williams"
1. Play Cloths
Pusha T Says: "Play Cloths is my heart. That's what i totally take pride in as far as the brand. As far as my designers. As far as just having our hand on the pulse of streetwear culture."