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Street Dance Clothing

Tulika Nair
You can always identify street dancers. Just a casual look at their clothing style will tell you whether or not they harbor an interest in dance. We tell you more about street dance clothing.
What is street dancing? Mostly we associate street dancing with hip hop and associated dance moves. Since it is something that originated on the streets, there was no specific type of clothing that was designed for the same.
Clothing that street dancers wear is something that they wear day in and day out. Clothes that they go to school in, clothes that they wear to the mall; it is an indication of how street dancing is accessible to everyone and anyone.
While hip hop dancers tend to be associated with glittering accessories, street dancing clothes are slightly more subtle and less extravagant. Clothes that street dancers wear is an indication of who they are and where they come from. Let us take a look at the clothing styles of people who have more than a passing interest in what we call street dancing.

Clothing of Street Dancers

When you say the words street dancer or hip-hop dancer, what is the image that pops into your head? For most people, it is an image of a person wearing baggy and oversized clothes with a cap on their head, moving to the music playing in ways unimaginable to us, normal beings.
Well, clothes for street dancing which has a lot of similarities when compared to clothing worn by hip hop dancers, have evolved a lot in recent years, especially due to the proliferation of styles like lyrical hip-hop that demands that clothing be slightly more refined.
But the clothing style in street dancing to a large extent still remains the same. Let us take a look at the different features that together makeup the street dance clothing.

Tops

If you observe the clothing styles of street dancers you will notice that there is a marked difference between the tops that men and women wear.
For guys, the clothing generally consists of an oversized t-shirt with probably a hooded jacket at times. For women, the clothing is slightly more varied with tank tops and vests being the call of the day. Hooded t-shirts that reach the midriff are also extremely popular for women.

Bottoms

Bottoms for both men and women started out as being baggy tracks or denims, that were literally about to fall off.
Today, the guys still prefer wearing baggy jeans or tracks but women have moved on to wearing mini skirts with stockings or leg warmers, shorts, and even crop pants. Many men also wear Capri pants with ankle length shoes. Knee-high socks are also a popular new look for women.

Footwear

For any street dancer, the most important item of clothing is their shoes. Any shoe that makes the slightest of sounds can ruin the performance and also you need a pair of shoes that allow for proper grip and smooth movement.
For a street dancer, the best pair of shoes is a split sole sneaker that has shock absorbers and allows for great flexibility so that the dancer can move and spin smoothly without any kind of friction.

Accessories

For a street dancer, proper accessories are a part of the look, and without these accessories their clothes can seem kind of incomplete.
Accessories that most street dancers often don include caps, bandannas, hair extensions, neon colored gloves, fishnet gloves, sweatbands, belts, etc. Oversized jewelry is also something that some dancers like to wear. Women often wear headbands, barrettes, and sequined rubber bands.
For any street dancer, their clothing has to be such that it allows for a lot of comfort. Without comfortable clothing and something that shouts individuality, it is difficult to be comfortable in one's skin.
And this is of prime importance for any street dancer. At the end of the day, street dance clothing is about being true to oneself and there is no one style aesthetic that can define it.