Streetwear Brand Celebrates Black History Month With New Collection (Photos via Hypland)
Hypland Celebrates Black History Month With New Collection
A Los Angeles streetwear brand is celebrating Black History Month with its latest collection.
Hypland recently released its Black History Collection, which features everything from hoodies adorned with African flags, as well as t-shirts paying homage to blaxploitation films of the past.
"I personally am extremely interested in blaxploitation films and books, and they had a pretty positive impact and influence for African Americans during the 1970s," said Jordan Bentley, the owner of Hypland. "So for this collection, I figured I would reference a few of the popular films and familiar faces from the movies — actors like Pam Grier in Foxy Brown."
"As far as influence on the hoodies, that is a little more straightforward," Bentley added. "Our flag design hoodie is a staple for our brand and we decided to use this month as a way to bring new countries to our customers. For the most part, my aim with this collection was to bring a little more of the African American flavor to the clothing market, because typically this type of imagery is underrepresented."
The items from Hypland's Black History Collection can be purchased here.
Speaking of blaxploitation films, a streaming service dedicated to such movies launched a few months back.
Appropriately named, Brown Sugar, is a streaming service featuring an extensive library of iconic '70s black movies including: The Mack; Foxy Brown; Shaft; Super Fly; Dolemite; Cotton Comes To Harlem; Uptown Saturday Night; Cooley High; Three The Hard Way; Coffy; Black Caesar; Five On The Black Hand Side; Cleopatra Jones; Mandingo; Willie Dynamite; Which Way Is Up?; Car Wash; The Original Gangstas and many more.
"Brown Sugar is just like Netflix, only blacker," Pam Grier, who serves as an official ambassador for Brown Sugar, said in a statement. "These movies are entertaining and fun, but they were also empowering to the black community as they depicted African Americans as strong leading characters and heroes for the first time."
