Matches & Flows; How Tyler, the Creator Challenges Music and Style

With a number of studio albums, merchandise, and visible tasks, Tyler, the Creator possesses a singular functionality to generate authentic masterpieces. His skill to inform a narrative by way of his music has been evident since his debut, and he has continued to make use of multi-layered storytelling in all features of his creations. Alongside together with his lyrical skills, his private fashion has advanced with distinctive synchronicity to his music. Regardless of which trend period of Tyler’s is your favourite, each has a definite place in his musical creations.

Tyler, the Creator started his profession within the late 2000s as one of many founding members of the choice hip-hop group Odd Future. He launched his solo mixtape, Bastard, in 2009, a group of gritty, coarse, and offensive lyrics. His fashion on the time mirrored his lyrics, with lots of his clothes items being brightly coloured, mismatched, and coated in profanity.

Photograph illustration by Kaushik Kalidindi for Okayplayer.

The New York Metropolis-based skatewear model, Supreme, was a major factor of his early clothes ensembles. Using their distinctive hats, hoodies, and t-shirts, Tyler helped to popularize the model amongst his followers, incomes him a partnership. Due to this, youngsters all around the world had been operating to shops looking for garments like his. Tyler launched his personal clothes line, Golf Wang, in 2011, releasing seasonal collections of wacky graphic tees, collared button-ups, hoodies, and equipment that made up his signature fashion. The discharge of his first studio album, Goblin, accompanied the discharge of the clothes line, completely permitting shoppers to tackle the persona he introduced fully. Each Bastard and Goblin helped to foster a particular sense of favor that followers took discover of and tried their greatest to duplicate.

2013 introduced the discharge of Tyler’s second studio album, Wolf. Arguably considered one of his most structured albums, Wolf consists of a number of characters with particular person tales and conflicts outdoors of Tyler, himself. The album flaunts a mix of childlike and macabre themes, with the dynamics portrayed within the characters and the visuals for the album. The music video for his track, “IFHY” ft. Pharell, completely conveys this aesthetic, with vivid colours and dollhouse settings and make-up. Wolf can be the primary of Tyler’s albums to convey new environments in his storytelling, each visually and lyrically. This new enterprise marks the beginning of a sample he reveals in later tasks.

Within the visuals for the album, Tyler will be seen nearly completely sporting Golf Wang, which is the start of the model’s publicity to his music. Golf Wang’s 2013/2014 collections featured extra striped shirts and polos (a Tyler staple), five-panel hats, and graphic t-shirts. Round this time, Tyler was typically seen wearing head-to-toe Golf Wang, proudly sporting his personal branded creations. In 2013, Tyler additionally introduced a collaboration with Vans, a possibility for him to imprint his personal fashion onto the basic Outdated Skool silhouette. This collaboration was the start of Tyler’s entry into trend collaborations that might be extra frequent in his profession as time went on.

Photograph illustration by Kaushik Kalidindi for Okayplayer.

Tyler’s 2015 studio album, Cherry Bomb, is his most experimental album by way of his music and general sound. To keep away from being pigeonholed as a rap artist, Tyler produced an album that transitions from piercing dissonance to euphonious melodies and vocals. The visuals within the album additionally mimic these themes, foreshadowing an upcoming shift in his aesthetic.

Cherry Bomb featured an array of vivid colours within the garments, much like his final albums, however this time, they had been directed in a extra intentional route. The video for his track, “DEATHCAMP”, makes use of a desert background to provide focus to the colours and patterns on the garments. The enduring blue and yellow flame sample was used all through the video and the album, one other broadly recognized image of Tyler’s mark on trend. Cherry Bomb additionally alerts the start of Tyler’s flip into preppy trend. Through the use of pastel colours for clothes, Tyler nearly creates a dreamscape in his music movies. In distinction to his previous movies, Tyler’s use of colourful outfits on Cherry Bomb feels extra intentional and calculated.

Photograph illustration by Kaushik Kalidindi for Okayplayer.

The discharge of Tyler’s fourth album, Flower Boy, launched a brand new aesthetic to his music and his followers. The album cowl for Flower Boy is commonly essentially the most recognizable of his works due to its drastic shift from what followers had been accustomed to seeing from him.

Taking the title actually, we see Tyler implementing extra florals into his fashion and merchandise. The Golf Wang collections launched round this time additionally noticed a theme change, with patterned cardigans, vests, and slacks becoming a member of the same old clothes lineup. Tyler continued his collaborations by way of this time, most popularly with Converse being on the forefront. The gathering was dropped in 2017 following a departure from Vans whereas additionally opening the floodgates for extra collaborations with the model to come back. Throughout his Flower Boy period, Tyler leaned extra into retro trend, popularizing a method his followers had been excited to recreate.

Photograph illustration by Kaushik Kalidindi for Okayplayer.

Tyler’s fifth album, Igor, marked a serious shift in Tyler’s trend and general music evolution. Bringing a brand new sound to the desk fully, Tyler was now not the identical artist that the world noticed at his debut. He experimented with extra soulful melodies and paired them with heartbreaking lyrics.

Along with sound experimentation, he launched his followers and the world to a brand new alter-ego. Sporting a brief blonde wig, pastel fits, and darkish sun shades, “Igor” had made his entrance. Alongside together with his onstage persona, his road fashion turned in direction of extra high quality, polished items. He started incorporating loafers, Ushankas, and higher-level equipment into his wardrobe. By mixing parts of his previous and current kinds, Tyler was capable of department out in an unpredictable route.

Photograph illustration by Kaushik Kalidindi for Okayplayer.

His most up-to-date album, Name Me if You Get Misplaced, was launched within the early summer season of 2021 and, as anticipated, introduced forth a brand new aesthetic and alter ego for Tyler. Known as “Tyler Baudelaire” on the album, Tyler explores themes of affection, journey, and gratitude by way of extra experiments with sound, samples, and lyricism. His expertise in inventive route additionally shines by way of, exemplified in his consideration to element, shade, and stylistic decisions.

The rollout for the album served as a harbinger of the route during which his fashion was going. CMIYGL was the start of Tyler’s trend making an entire 180-degree pivot from the place he started. As a substitute of sporting graphic tees and tie-dye patterns, Tyler stepped out in high-quality furs, silk scarves, and fits. The most important factor to come back from this wardrobe change was the revival of a subsect of Golf Wang, Golf Le Fleur, which he reintroduced as a luxurious model. Golf Le Fleur initially began as his Converse collaboration in 2016, however Tyler’s new fashion led him to alter the model’s route utterly. On this new incarnation, Golf Le Fleur reworked right into a luxurious label delivering greater high quality objects, corresponding to mohair sweaters, private fragrances, nail polishes, and Globetrotter trunks. Tyler’s new creations garnered him recognition for his eccentric fashion, and firmly entrenched him as a daring and fearless trend trailblazer.

Tyler’s current strikes within the trend world have been targeted on increasing the vary of his clothes manufacturers. His third Golf Wang retailer simply opened in London, making his merchandise extra accessible to international shoppers. Moreover, the brand new clothes line for Tyler’s Le Fleur x Lacoste collaboration was launched not too long ago, boasting a brand new assortment of high-end items.

We not often see an artist endure a lot progress in all features of their public picture in such an intricate means. Whether or not you favor the sooner or current kinds of Tyler, the Creator, there is no such thing as a denying that his originality has been an enormous a part of his evolution as an artist and trend icon.