It’s odd how an item of apparel can trigger certain emotions in people.

Remember back in the 90s/00s when hoodies were seen as pieces of clothing worn by gangsters, dirty skaters and computer nerds with absolutely no style? Well, the hoodie’s positive reputation has since come back with a vengeance.

Whether it’s for sport, casual wear or lately work “uniforms”, hoodies’ ebb and flow through fashion popularity has found them coming out winning.

It was first Marc Zuckerberg who made people reconsider the role of the hoodie in the workplace, walking into meetings with investors with that awful grey standard, and inspiring thought pieces like The art of Mark Zuckerberg’s hoodie by the Washington Post which had this gem:

While some may see the hoodie as a sign of adolescence, others see it as the badge of an entrepreneur who isn’t going to change his ways just because his company is going public and he’s about to make a bazillion dollars.

The hoodie is to Zuckerberg what black turtlenecks and jeans were to Steve Jobs. Just like its close cousins the grey T shirt and the sneaker, the hoodie gives Zuckerberg a way to sartorially wink that he doesn’t like to answer to anybody and that he’s not losing his “hacker” street cred.

[T]he signature hoodie seems to have become part of the Zuckerberg “brand.” (Or, as some have put it, “cult.”)

But although Zuck lacks fashion sense, opting instead for that “hacker street cred” (😂), the game changed when the hoodie began appearing on the catwalk and in paparazzi snaps last year.

Whether it was Karl Lagerfeld swapping out his couture bride’s veil for a haute hoodie, or North West donning one under a fur coat, the hoodie is rocking and rolling.

But how do you change it up from the version based on track uniforms and gangster’s paradise?

Magents will show you:

Kinda what Justin Bieber and the boys who want to be him wear, right? Totes.

But to make things more South African, a bit more conscious, Magents created this one:

That script you see across the garment is former President Thabo Mbeki’s speech, I am an African, which he made on behalf of the ANC in 1996 when the new constitution was passed.

Listen to it in full:

Defining the political sentiment of the time, the speech enhanced Mbeki’s reputation as a political orator, and people went so far as to liken him to Martin Luther King Jr.

In a time when South Africans need more than just social media statuses to show solidarity, it wouldn’t hurt if we started wearing our hearts on our sleeves.

Literally.

[source: vogue&washingtonpost]