Want a sneak peek of fashion’s next big thing? Forget scrolling through Pinterest and scanning the pages of exclusive glossies—to forecast what everyone’s soon to be wearing, look at the meticulous street art splashed across alleyways, train stations, and wherever else a visionary has cracked a can of spray paint to leave their mark.
The art and fashion worlds have always overlapped, bonded by a penchant for drama and a keen appreciation for color and texture. Back in the 1930s, legendary surrealist Salvador Dalí invented the artist-designer collab when he crafted off-kilter creations like the lobster dress and the shoe hat for Elsa Schiaparelli. The wearable oddities inspired countless future vis-art virtuosos to give garments a go themselves. Yet the specific influence of street artists—taggers, muralists, graffitists, and other public-art innovators—on what we wear has never been greater than right now.
Consider Kunle Martins, known among aficionados as Earsnot and a founding member of the famous IRAK graffiti crew that dominated New York’s downtown art scene in the late ‘90s. Martins made a name for himself by leaving his everywhere, tagging Earsnot in the corners and crevices of the Lower East Side until it couldn’t be ignored. More recently, he’s turned shirts and shoes into his canvas through game-changing collaborations with streetwear & skate culture mainstays—all while masterminding IRAK’s eponymous line of coveted apparel.
Late designer Virgil Abloh discussed the crew’s legacy in an August 2021 GQ feature on the collective. “I hope that kids know how important IRAK was, and just how it lived in the crevices of the street,” he said. “I always keep underlining and underscoring it.” The visionary was also an early supporter of Slawn, a London-based multidisciplinary artist with a penchant for bright colors and a knack for making memorable caricatures.
Slawn, real name Olaolu Akeredolu-Ale, has racked up collaborations with leading luxury houses—all before turning 25. Even A$AP Rocky has co-signed the Nigeria native’s irreverent creations, like his speckled take on Nike Air Max 90s. His reach extends beyond fashion’s glamorous sphere; he became the youngest artist to design the BRIT Awards statuette in 2023.
Slawn’s murals and paintings have sparked conversations due to their provocative interrogation of racist tropes and imagery. But it’s by splattering his works onto watches, bags, and garments that he transcends the stillness and scope of the street, fusing couture with counterculture while spreading his message to the (stylish) masses.
Martins and Slawn are two examples among many driving the new wave of high-fashion collections influenced by graffiti and other forms of place-based artistry. There’s also Futura, a ‘70s icon in NYC’s underground scene that elevated the form from scrawled messages to abstract masterpieces. A longtime friend of NIGO, Futura was tapped by the artistic director to support on a FW25 collection earlier this year, elevating signature design codes with his eye-catching calligraphy. It’s far from his first turn in the field, having worked with icons like Marc Jacobs and more in the course of his half-century career.
If you thought street art died in the ‘90s, you haven’t gotten out enough. The boundary-pushing creations of homegrown talents, platformed by ateliers but just as comfortable turning alleyways into their studios, are always on display—even if they’re only now getting their flowers from fashion’s finest. From marking up the street to selling at Dover Street Market, these artists stay painting the future of fashion—and waiting for you to look up from your phone and see it.
