Fashion between the panels: BEAT STREET

Fashion between the panels: BEAT STREET.

Hello everyone out there , as always it’s good to see you. I AM JMADDD STYLES , & you are currently reading my latest blog post. Fashion between the panels: BEAT STREET , for this installment of Fashion between the panels, I am once again taking you on a journey between the panels of yet another film classic ( BEAT STREET ) , and pulling out the fashion to show you just how the looks from this film of yesterday, can still be fashionable and relevant today. This film was ground breaking when it hit theaters on ( June 8 , 1984 ) , because it was among the first films to bring the culture of Hip Hop , to the big screen for the masses to see and appreciate. But along with bringing you the culture of Hip Hop , it gave you a broader view of what is encompassed in the culture of Hip Hop. Meaning the importance of the DJ , the then fascination with the art of street dancing aka ( Breakin ) or Break Dancing. But the hidden gem in the film was the unique fashion and style that was associated with being an MC , DJ , or a kid that had killer Street dance moves. It was the beginning of true Street Style or what is now called Streetwear. A form of fashion that would later take the fashion industry by storm and eventually become a major financial stake in the fashion game. Once Streetwear and Street Style , caught the eye of the masses their was no slowing down , it would only get bigger , just as big if not bigger than the other components of this thing this phenomenon that we call Hip Hop . That is the backdrop of this new blog/vlog , going between the panels of this movie and bringing back the Street Style of then , and showing you how that same look translates to now. But I can show you better than I can tell you , so below, take a look at my latest fashionable production , Fashion between the panels: BEAT STREET.

All looks in this video have been styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.

So there you have it a blog / vlog 36 yrs. in the making , and we have just reached the end of it. I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog post , just as much as I enjoyed presenting it to you. I also hope that this has been instrumental In inspiring you to enhance your own personal Street Style. You can shop the looks in the video above at , www.mrporter.com , www.farfetch.com , www.shopstyle.com and www.puma.com . I AM JMADDD STYLES , and this has been Fashion between the panels: BEAT STREET. That’s it for now , so until the next time…IM GONE…!!!

Be sure to meet me back here for my next upcoming blog post.

Fashion between the panels: Boomerang

Fashion between the panels : Boomerang

All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.

Hello everyone out there, as always it’s good to see you. I AM JMADDD STYLES , and I would like to welcome you to another installment of Fashion between the panels. Fashion between the panels: BOOMERANG , to be exact. This time I will be taking you between the panels of yet another movie classic ( BOOMERANG ) and breaking down the fashion to come up with new inspired looks , based around and inspired by the looks in the movie. Showing you the timelessness of good fashion and how fashionably relevant this classic piece of cinema really is. I’m going to take a look at five of the major characters in the film , ( Jackie / Robin Givens ), ( Marcus Graham/ Eddie Murphy) , ( Christie / Lela Rochon ) , ( Angela / Halle Berry ) ,( Mr Jackson /John Witherspoon) , and ( Strange’/ Grace Jones ). Each of these characters were very much fashionably noteworthy in their own way in the movie. With that said let’s get started.

Christie / Lela Rochon.

Let’s start right here with Christie/ Lela Rochon , when you looked at her character, you got a vibe of pure sexy but effortless, basically she had great date night style. With the halter neck body-con dress that she wore in this scene. This look is very much timeless as in it could still be worn today. But let’s take a look at how this look would translate today to really make it on trend for right now.

All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.

To translate this look for today , I kept the basic color of the dress being purple , with a slight pink hew. But I changed the details. The first option being a little closer to the look that was actually worn in the movie. A more sexy cocktail halter neck dress , but I added a long gold chain, a floral summer bag , a bangle bracelet with multi colored stones to highlight the dress color and the look is finished with a perfect opened toe sandal in a contrasting pink with hints of purple. The second look is also a halter neck dress , but a little more on the elegant side as the length is longer. I kept most of the accessories the same , but changed the shoes to a more elegant gold sandal to better suit the dress.

Christie/ Lela Rochon.
Jackie/ Robin Givens & Marcus Graham / Eddie Murphy.

Throughout this blog post , we are going to come back to Jackie and Marcus a few times , here I’m going to start breaking down their looks. Now keep in mind that this movie came out in the 90’s but once again the looks still translate well today.

All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.

This is truly a timeless look , navy blue suit with a grey mock neck , this look can go a long way. To translate this look better for now , I gave you more of a tailored suit look , as the suit being worn in this scene is a little more on the unconstructed side , as a lot of clothing in the 90’s was. To complete the look I went with a blue cap-toe shoe and a matching belt. The look easily goes from the boardroom to a night out.

This look being worn by Jackie / Robin Givens , like most of the looks that she wore in the movie or all the looks she wore in the movie are truly timeless. She for the most part wore classic women’s suits , that took on the appearance of the ever on trend Channel suit. But let’s see how this look would translate today.

All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.

Now for this look I made a few changes but still managed to keep the timelessness of the original look. I kept the look in green , but did not go with a check pattern. Instead I went with a solid patternless look. That almost has the same feel as the original. also instead of a overtly sexy shoe, I went with a more subdued pump in a neutral color and a contrasting brown cross body bag.

Jackie/ Robin Givens.
Jackie/ Robin Givens & Marcus Graham / Eddie Murphy.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
Marcus Graham / Eddie Murphy.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.

The looks being captured above that are being worn by Eddie Murphy & Robin Givens, are evening wear looks. Once again when it came to the fashion that Jackie / Robin wore throughout this movie was truly timeless, it doesn’t take much tweaking, just small changes to give the looks a more fresher appeal. In this case , she’s wearing a black evening gown , that was done in a more velvety material with just a few accompanying jewelry pieces. I took this look and put it in more of a silk blend evening gown , changed up the shoes to a strappy evening sandal and kept the look of the pearl bracelet and necklace that always looks classy with a black evening wear look. Now to look at the evening wear look that Marcus / Eddie is wearing, of course being that it’s menswear from another era, that was fitted like it’s from another era , I gave you the more tailored tux with the more wide peek lapel in satin. The idea of the look is classic but not the styling or the fit. I also gave the look a shoe change and kept the bow tie in gold.

Grace Jones / Strange’
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
Grace Jones / Strange’

We couldn’t leave this classic scene of this movie without, styling a more updated version of the Strange’/ Grace Jones look. If you take a good look at this outfit , it’s to far off by today’s standards. The tights , or hot pants of yesterday are still fashion forward today just a slightly different cut. But I changed the waistcoat to a more straight styled vest of mid thigh length instead of the fishnet looking one she wore in the movie giving the look a little more of a regal appearance. I kept the black and red ankle boot but switched up the style of the boot for update purposes. I also added a gold choker to complement the cut away sleeve top , slightly changing the whole look.

Marcus Graham/ Eddie Murphy
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
Marcus Graham / Eddie Murphy .
Marcus Graham/ Eddie Murphy.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.

Taking it back to Marcus Graham/ Eddie Murphy, The two looks that you are seeing above are not actually different looks. The top look is heading into the office with an overcoat, the second look is what is being worn under the overcoat once in the office. For the top look , I added a more trendy black jean. To play off the black overcoat, kept the paisley scarf slight color change , added a designer belt and a dress boot that could go a long way. The second look is the full office business casual look without the coat. The full look definitely required updating. Changed the lapeless blazer to a different version almost the same jacket with a smaller more sleeker lapel , to modernize the look , but still kept it classic with the turtleneck.

Angela / Halle Berry.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.

Interesting observation about this movie , Halle Berry is easily one of the best looking women in Hollywood. But in this movie they down played her character up against Robin Givens character, making Jackie come across twice as sexy , while Angela came across more cute , fashionably speaking until the end. If you never noticed , you will see what I mean. Angela’s style in the movie was not as classic and timeless as Jackie’s, so a lot of her looks were truly 90’s. So to capture her looks , I made a few modifications. Starting with this look. I went with a classic button down dress shirt in black with a more traditional collar. For the pants , I went with a more tailored fit dress pant to play up against the shirt, and for authenticity I still added in a Kufi ( hat ) that can be pulled off if that’s the style you project. Also for authenticity added a necklace almost identical to the one Jackie had on in the original look.

Marcus Graham/Eddie Murphy & Angela / Halle Berry.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.

This look on Angela could have very well been a sexy look , but it was still down played coming across as cute. But when I decided to make the look over , I went with a more sexy appeal. The dress is still made of the same type material, but it’s a little longer and a bit more form fitted. The jacket I added gives you the feel of a cropped blazer instead of looking as lounge like. Then to really add more sex appeal to the look I added in a high healed open toe sandal , to add more to the dress and jacket , then finished off the look with a noticeable yet not overwhelming bracelet.

All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
Marcus Graham/ Eddie Murphy & Angela/ Halle Berry.

The Marcus Graham look for this scene could have almost been classified as a new age 90’s leisure suit , I often debated was it a one piece, sweater pants combo done like a lounge jumpsuit. Either way you look at it , the look had to be changed. I still went with a pull over sweater, but opted for the zipper collar instead of the one button on the inside of the sweater. Then went with a casual black denim styled chino in black , a loafer for true Marcus Graham style , then a designer silver chain with onyx piece for a good jewelry accent and finished the look with a designer belt. Although changed still capturing the Marcus Graham look.

John Witherspoon / Mr. Jackson
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
John Witherspoon/ Mr. Jackson.

I could not leave this classic scene in the movie without showing you that I knew how to capture the look of Mr. you have to coordinate, an authentic 60’s / 70’s leisure suit look. The interesting part about capturing this look , you have vintage clothing wearers that search high and low for a leisure suit such as this one with the fly collar shirt and vintage dress boots. Giving you a touch of what is known as Geezer Style.

Jackie / Robin Givens.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
Jackie / Robin Givens

I know that I have already said this but , every look that Jackie wore translates almost seamlessly from then to now. The major changes that I made to this look , really were not major. The cut of the jacket for this suit is slightly different as it has a zipper closure instead of a double breasted button front. Also added a cream or egg shell colored hand bag with contrasting pump in the same color way. This look just screams Jackie . Wouldn’t you say ? As always I LET YOU TELL IT.

Angela / Halle Berry.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
All looks are styled and arranged by JMADDD STYLES.
Angela / Halle Berry.

A little earlier I made reference to the fact that throughout this movie , Angela had a more cute style as opposed to Jackie being more fashionably bold and sexy. But by the end of the film this would change and the Angela character would become more like Jackie fashionably speaking. The look here all business, from the Black dress to the gold heels , then finished off with a gold necklace to fill the open space at the cleavage line of the dress and finished off with a subtle gold earring. Taking Angela’s style to a whole different fashionable Plato , or level. Well there it is , just like that , we have reached the end of yet another blog post. I hope you have enjoyed reading it, just as much as I enjoyed presenting it. I AM JMADDD STYLES , and this has been Fashion between the panels : BOOMERANG. That’s it for now, so until the next time…IM GONE…!!!..

Be sure to return for my next Blog post , coming soon…

Fashion between the panels: Mo’better Blues….

Fashion between the panels: Mo’ Better Blues.

Hello everyone out there as always it’s good to see you. Welcome to my latest blog post: Fashion between the panels: Mo’better blues , by the way just incase you’re not yet familiar with me I AM JMADDD STYLES. For todays Fashion between the panels, im flashing you back to the 90’s , 1990 to be exact. When director Spike Lee came with probably one of his best if not the best of his films Mo’better blues. The film was visually great and had some of the coolest characters that I had seen put on screen in a movie. The question is what made it so cool ? Well if you ask me in my fashionable opinion it was the imagery, the fashion , and the musician lifestyle that went hand in hand with the fashion creating some very cool and memorable characters that would stand the test of cinematic and fashionable time.

Now everybody in the film had major style adding to their character, but the major characters that the film focused in on were Spike Lee’s character: Giant , Denzel Washington’s character : Bleek , Cynda Williams character : Clarke and Wesley Snipes character : Shadow. Each of these characters were equally inspirational from a fashionable standpoint as well, so that’s who im going to focus in on to show how the fashion they displayed still translates as fashion forward looks for today ,with a few minor tweeks or changes. So to get started let’s take a look at

Giant : Spike Lee

Giant was the manager of Bleek’s band although it often looked as though he was being taken lightly as a manager, he still had real style , the first look that I wanted to recreate to show the timelessness of the look , was the suede baseball jacket look above , as he scrambled down the streets of Brooklyn to escape the hitmen that were after him for his gambling debts. This look was so timeless that it didn’t require much changing when recreating it , a slight tweek to the style of hat , and added a crock skin ankle boot to really set the dress pants off with no cuff for a more modern fit.

The next look that I wanted to capture was the look that Giant (Spike Lee) was wearing on the iconic movie poster and album cover , the opening picture of this blog

To Capture and restyle this look , I had to make a few changes, the look from the 90’s in the picture had a plaid or checked pattern with a mustard color pair of pants ( hot at that time) with a black shirt. To modernize the look , I gave the look a slight color change from mustard to more chocolate brown and beige as the accent color for the blazer. Im never a fan of black dress shirts , so I went with a cream color spread collar shirt , and kept the fedora to complete the look.

Shadow : Westley Snipes

The next character whose style that im going to recreate is Westley Snipes character Shadow. You will notice a common thread that runs through alot of each individual look is they all knew how to wear a proper topper, a hat. For this look of Shadow’s that im going to recreate the hat is a key part of the look.

Similar to the 1st look that Spike Lee had on above , this too is a casually cool look with suede green baseball jacket , with a fedora to finish off the look.

To Restyle and update the look but give it the same feel , I went with a green seude denim style of jacket , kept the more cognac color brown for the shirt and pants and finished the look with a suede chocolate brown dress boot , then finishing the look once again with the signature fedora to keep the feel of the original look.

The next look is a bit of a step up to being more dressy , a classic black suit look with turtleneck. To restyle this look I wanted to go with a different shirt. Although I always like the look of a turtle neck and suit , but for the recapture of the look ,

wanted to go with a designer polo shirt , an animal print pocket square and finished the look with a dressy casual designer loafer. Giving you the look from then but looking more completely now.

Now For this look Shadow is once again giving more of a dressy casual vibe , to recapture and update the look

I kept the fedora, that’s always timeless, but I added a two toned button down , similar to the shirt being worn by Shadow, but to finish the look I added in a new dress boot beige dress pant to offset the colors in the shirt , recreating this look with a modern twist.

Clarke : Cynda Williams

From The minute Cynda Williams ( Clarke) stepped on screen her whole style was undeniably noticeable, as she appeared at Denzel Washington’s ( Bleek ) door. That look that you see above is the first style of Clarke that I wanted to recapture and style.

The Main focal point of the look being the red wool coat then the hat that is seen above , a women’s fedora or floppy hat. Since you don’t see the rest of the look from the waist down, the look is completed with a tailored pant a designer ankle boot and polka dot blouse or shirt.

The Next look that really grabbed my attention years ago , is the famous record store scene with Clarke and Shadow, I captured Shadow’s look from this scene a few frames above. In this scene Clarke has on a bodycon striped dress , a classic look in itself that has never gone out of style. To recapture and restyle the look , I went with two different dresses for variety to give you the same look and feel from the movie , but tweaked the look just a little.

To Show you the look could be done with two different color dresses and slightly different style of dress , but the common thing is that both looks show you how to put Clarke’s look together in more than one way. But still give you the basic style.

Then for her final look , the evening dress for her first appearance singing with the band, once again a perfect example of how the feel of a look can be done even if you change the dress to another style , the blue print and red carpet style is still the same.

Creating a timeless look of both impeccable style and unforgettable fashion .

Bleek : Denzel Washington

Every now and again, there comes along a movie with a character in it that comes across so cool that it leaves an impression in your mind of how cool , cool can be. Eddie Murphy did it in Boomerang and Denzel Washington captured the same type of cool in Mo’better blues , except the character was more on the artistic side and because of that side being displayed more his flaws added to the eccentric coolness. But what added to this was the image of the character, his fashion since came across as cutting edge and cool as he did , let’s take a look , starting with the first look above.

The look from the movie was a not so much orange but more of a rustic or rust color double breasted suit , with white dress shirt. As much of a fan of a good double breasted suit as I am , I wanted to recreate the look with a slight change. The suit that I went with was or is a two button single breasted suit , the colorway is in the same family , but a little darker , the dress shirt is white but a semi-spread collar for more of an expensive and right now look , that would look great with or without a tie. To finish the look a suede dress boot and a simple jewelry piece to bring the look full circle. That’s where fashionable improvisation comes in cause that’s the details you don’t see.

For the next look , staying with the suit theme , cause a good suit look goes a long way. I first showed Shadow ( Westley Snipes) black suit look , now to show the versatility of the look , im going to recreate Bleek’s black suit look.

It’s amazing how a different persona , give a whole new look to basically the same style of black suit. The look for Shadow was more casually cool , but the look for Bleek is more on the smoothed out dressy casual side. Once again a semi-spread collar dress shirt , tie optional, this time the suede boot in black and to round the look out a pair of black shades lightly tented and a standout timepiece. These small details completely make another all different look.

Now I could have very well created more looks based around Bleek (Denzel Washington’s) character, but the variations I did for the two looks captured the Fashionable Likeness and Essence of the character perfectly, so im leaving it right where it is.

Well There it is , the end of yet another blog post , this has been Fashion between the panels: Mo’better blues and I AM JMADDD STYLES. Stay close ill be back soon with another all new blog post, that you don’t want to miss. However that’s it for now , so until the next time…IM GONE..!!!