Jas9 aka Jay-Steaze aka the real JD is Montreal’s own bubbly hiphopanista and our upmost newest collaborator. For this first post we asked her to tell us about the Steaze project. Welcome, Jasmine.
Milford Kemp pimps clothes not hoes
Steaze is not just a style blog – this is a Hip Hop street wear style blog! Everyone wants to feel wanted right? So, everyday I go out of my way to tell people that I think they have great style! If you think it, might as well say it! I used to look at street style blogs for inspiration for my fashion design courses but I noticed that only 1 in every 10 pictures was hip hop style. I could not find a strictly hip hop style blog so I thought to myself if you want it might as well make it happen yourself!
I started my blog when I was doing an internship in New York City where street style was born. When I was not working for Claw Money, i would be roaming the streets of NYC and would keep my camera on me everywhere I went. Every time I saw someone wearing an outfit that would make the Cold Crush brother say “That outfit was no accident!!!” I would go up to them and say “I really like your style. Would you like to be on my streetstyle blog?” In New York City the women with good style were very skeptical and almost never wanted me to take a photo of their style. The men were a whole different story, they just loved it! They would pose up in their best stance and say “yaaa I have great style”.
One day I was biking up De La Montagne street in Montreal and I saw this man wearing a Louis Vuitton monogram suit walking out of the Vogue Hotel. It turned out he was the Ambasador of Gabon and had never heard of the internet. It took me alot of convincing to get him to walk down the block to pose in front of the Louis Vuitton store. He told me something that I normally never hear: “You know this really made my day.”
Another great experience creating the blog was when I saw this old man with a bboy hat full of pins walking with a bunch of big black guys. I had no idea what the pins were for but I had to ask him for a picture. I ran up to him and said would your body guards let me take a picture of your style? It turned out he won the pins in boxing tournaments and that he was the manager of the world champion boxer Chad Dawson. I think Chad Dawson was a little sad that I didn’t ask to take his picture for the blog so I took it anyways to not make him feel left out!
I really enjoy creating this blog because I get to meet all kinds of interesting people that normally I would never get the chance to speak to. I try to only pick outfits that you rarely see – when they truly master the art of style with ease – where from head to toe their style melds into one great outfit. Also I find that the background always makes the pictures better. It’s always a challenge to convince the steazed out person to walk in front of a great background that matches their style.
Montreal has a big hip hop scene and we have a lot of pioneers that make a point of going out with their freshest gear and really put some effort into their ensemble. I hope that one day this blog will give recognition to our Montreal hip hop fashion scene and everyday I will do my best to post at least once to show my love to hip hop street style.
Photos and words by Jasmine Steaze. More Steaze here.
