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Tyler, The Creator, Odd Future, IGOR style evolution
@feliciathegoat

A brief guide to Tyler, The Creator'south style evolution

Every bit he releases his SS19 Golf Wang collection, we chart the ex-Odd Future rapper's rising from weirdo LA skate kid to Andy Warhol-wigged IGOR icon

Tyler the Creator first exploded into public consciousness equally a founding member of totally wild alternative hip hop collective Odd Future back in the mid-00s, before his debut solo mixtape, Bastard, dropped soon later on in 2009. His early on music, both what he created as part of Odd Future and when he was out on his own, had a punky, raw, DIY feel to it: a sharp dissimilarity to the excessive, luxe aesthetics of hip hop at the time.

Merely it was his 2011 music video for his single, "Yonkers", with its simple, black and white one frame shot of the rapper wearing a five panel Supreme hat and a graphic, short sleeve button upwardly shirt with an oversized beetle itch over his mitt, that brought him the most mainstream attention even so. "Yonkers" went on to win Tyler the Creator All-time New Artist at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards and, later that year, a one-record deal for a studio album with Twoscore Recordings.

If "Yonkers" laid downward the foundations for Tyler'south taste for the surreal, it also had all the early markers of what is now his impossible-to-miss personal way and his penchant for using wearable to play dissimilar characters. But, whether it's preppy skater, louche gramps or nightmarish Teddy Boy, every character bears the aforementioned cornerstones: kaleidoscopic and outlandish, and always with an chemical element of the absurd.

Hither, we chronicle Tyler the Creator's manner development and his influence on streetwear: from selling Odd Hereafter merch on LA's Fairfax Artery to rocking a peroxide wig outside Buckingham Palace, afterward Theresa May did the right thing for once and let him back into the UK.

ODD Hereafter SKATER NERD

When Tyler co-founded Odd Future in 2007, merch civilisation was in its infancy, and Supreme, though a cult clandestine skater brand, was nowhere about the apex of following it would reach in the late 00s. In both his solo projects and equally a member of the Odd Hereafter collective, Tyler'due south mode channelled an like shooting fish in a barrel California cool, one part punk, 1 part preppy weirdo skater in single pleat chinos and collegiate short-sleeve push ups.

In 2011, the group opened an Odd Future store on LA'southward Fairfax Avenue, around the corner from Vans and Supreme, where LA skaters would hang out. Significant that, more than than just having a group of set-made fans and ambassadors, the OF line was as well heavily influenced past the scene around it. Equally repped by Tyler and the whole coiffure, cartoonish prints (graphic donuts were the OF signature) and hoodies with select OF members' faces printed on them were a staples, and no one, particularly not Tyler, went anywhere without a five-panel cap.

Members of the collective, among them, Frank Ocean, Domo Genesis, Syd (formerly tha Kyd) and Earl Sweatshirt continued to put out solo projection – singles, YouTube skits – but what held them together was the aesthetic language established through a shared style, which, looking back, gives the Odd Future scene of the era and Larry Clark-esque wash.

THE GOLF WANG AMBASSADOR

The Odd Futurity shop eventually expanded with Tyler's own line, Golf Wang, which outlived the store as OF eventually disbanded. More than only a habiliment line, it grew into the pin that held together everything in Tyler'southward aesthetic universe, from his album covers to his Army camp Flog Gnaw festival. By the time his 2015 albumRuby Bombdropped, his alloy of stoner naivety stirred with a pastel coloured acid trip became the definitive style among the LA hip hop and skate scene, and was in fact commencement to exit its mark on menswear-at-big.

Tyler was, in part, inspired by Pharrell, another polymath with an affinity for candy colours, though it'south around this time he start expressed some signature divisive thoughts on the way industry: "I fucking detest manner and everything virtually it. I just like making stuff and it happens to be in fucking cotton wool and, like, materials," he told Billboard in 2014. Nevertheless, despite himself, Golf Wang grew from merch-adjacent into a bonafide streetwear hit – Supreme'south James Jebbia was an early supporter.

In 2016, Tyler staged a fashion bear witness and live operation in LA, and in 2018 he dropped a collection video featuring longtime friend and quondam collaborator A$AP Rocky and a alive lamb. Afterward a controversial break-up from Vans in 2016, Golf Wang has been collaborating with Converse on the Golf Le Fleur trainer, which repeatedly sell out (most recently, it released a limited edition pair for Pride). Not bad for someone who just "make(s) the dress I desire to purchase."

SUAVE Granddaddy

With the release of Tyler'southward third album, Flower Male child, came a new area of dressing for the star: non a consummate departure from his skater roots, merely rather a tailored, more grown upwards version of it. He seemed to accept developed a new taste for suits of all kinds: tailored and floral in the music video for Kali Uchis' "After the Storm", and boiler and similarly floral performing with the singer on The This evening Show with Jimmy Fallon), equally well every bit the sweater vests and louche slacks seen every bit part of his AW18 Golf Wang collection.

He also perfected the socks and sandals combo (generally simple, white cotton with a classic pair of Tevas), crowned with a Golf Wang collaboration with the cult Japanese kings of orthopedic footwear, Suicoke. "I similar dressing similar an old man," he told Fantastic Man in 2018. This new evolution, while it fit into the larger stylescape of fantasy dressing and nerdish sensibilities (championed by the likes of Gucci) besides bears Tyler'south signature hand for unexpected tailoring, and condolement, all mixed upwardly with an absurdist edge.

AN ODE TO DENNIS RODMAN

For the 2018 Grammy'due south Tyler donned a periwinkle blue glaze complete with matching LV scarf, an ushanka and a Dennis Rodman dye job, and then was seen a few days later sporting a bottle dark-green suit with a xanthous sweater, bucket hat, and bedazzled Chanel brooch. This look solidified a new era of dressing for the rapper, as he outgrew his status as a oddball skater with an outlandish sensibility, into fully fledged fashion icon. As he graced several best-dressed lists in 2018, it seemed like the menswear world finally took note of what streetwear-obsessives and Tyler-fans already knew: the rapper is a principal of dressing for every occasion while always unfailingly managing to look like himself.

IGOR LIVES

The rapper released his latest album,IGOR, in late May 2019, (and caused considerable havoc making his first Uk appearance afterward being banned to enter by then-abode secretary Theresa May in 2015, commanding a hopeful crowd to the Bussey Building and then leaving them waiting in a sort of Fyre Festival-lite.) A music video for his single EARFQUAKE was released shortly after the album, with Tyler, clad in a sky-blue fitted suit and peroxide wig, dancing around a Tv studio draped in tinsel, every bit it slowly goes upwardly in flames. With IGOR, a new persona was born: one part Bowie, one function done-upwards Elvis impersonator, with an array of candy-coloured suits and a peroxide blonde wig that'due south been referred to as "Andy Warhol meets Boris Johnson" which is terrifying and, also, sort of truthful. (Here he is in one memorable Instagram, posing exterior Buckingham Palace).

Tyler'south always toyed with expectations of masculinity (though his own relationship with the LGBTQIA+ community was complicated and rumours virtually his sexuality were unconfirmed). IGOR the album is a contemplative, cantankerous-genre narrative about honey and heartbreak, and IGOR the persona is a fitting visual extension to this new era of vulnerability: a softer, more adventurous silhouette, rooted in androgyny – but with all the aforementioned offbeat Tyler trademarks. What's adjacent? Stay tuned.