England. Fish and chips, cuppa tea, the Euston platform dash; all quintessentially British, but none more than the humble tracksuit. The youth cultural uniform of the nation's cities, it's impossible to get around the chaos of London's streets without adopting tracksuit love. While many sport a two-piece, few own it quite like Central Cee.
As much a synonym of the star as his tracks and tats, you'll rarely catch Cench outside without a tracksuit. At this point, we'd be stunned to silence should he ditch the trackie – from studio to jet, restaurant to red carpet, no matter the weather.
Anyone serious about tracksuits knows the law; one black, one grey. The staples of any rotation, your bread and butter; a safety net, if you will; one that Central Cee has long since mastered. Red, blue, orange, yellow, green, two-tone; if the colorway exists, he's rocked it.
Flicking through the chart-topping artist's trackie portfolio, you'll come to find a clear adoration of London's most favored styles: Trapstar and the inevitable Nike Tech Fleece.
Unafraid to make these frequent wears – that is, after all, the intention of a tracksuit – Cench has crafted an image that does away with the idea of the tracksuit as a home or training uniform; it's the uniform of chart leaders, trendsetters, and cover stars.
While it should be noted that Skepta pioneered the movement with "Tracksuit Mafia" and lyrics like "went to the show, sitting in the front row. In a black tracksuit and it's shutdown" throughout the mid-2010s, Central Cee has owned the image wholeheartedly, making it impossible to think of him without envisioning color-blocked tracksuits and sneakers.
With his sharp rise to stardom, vanilla tracksuits slowly began to take a back seat, with outrageously bright and bold ensembles leading the way. After all, to be an icon is to make a statement, right?
That being said, rewriting the rules of the red carpet is a game of balance. Could Cench pull off an orange two-tone set at the Fashion Awards? Sure. Should he? Probably not. The balance? A blacked-out look that sent Decathlon UK into a frenzy; the Central Cee effect in motion.
While I'm hesitant to write his legacy prematurely, don't be surprised if we live to see Central Cee as the face of the tracksuit. At the very least, an official synonym.
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Magazine, Spring 2023
Highsnobiety
