The Evolution of Fashion in Atlanta

MOLLY CANN

The culture of Atlanta’s fashion has been featured in music videos, movies, reality tv, and other entertainment and media platforms. Despite this, fashion in Atlanta has been overlooked, almost disregarded for many years. A new outlook on Atlanta came from the 1996 Summer Olympics when tourists started flocking to Atlanta and began to realize the hidden potential for a fashion hub. This brought even more attention to the advancing hip-hop scene with artists like Andre 3000 and 2 Chainz who made a more radical shift in the style dynamic of Atlanta. The media rush created by famous Atlanta rappers along with the publicity of the Olympics caused high fashion brands to flock to the south, wanting to have a prominent spot in Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza. To keep up with the upcoming fashion scene, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) opened an Atlanta campus in the early 2000s. These art students from New York and beyond transformed Atlanta into an even greater melting pot of creativity, helping to expand its reputation. This army of design graduates go on to work for Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Ralph Lauren, and others around the world, while many decide to share their passion in the South. Designers like Billy Reid, Heidi Elnora, and Alabama Chanin have helped to create a distinctly Southern aesthetic that can be tied to Atlanta. Atlanta is a city of youth, diversity, and creative entrepreneurship, with a new generation that has a deeper understanding and appreciation for fashion. Whatever the future of fashion looks like, you can bet it will look a lot like Atlanta.