Andre Benjamin and Antwan Patton were wearing baseball jerseys long before they were a hip hop cornerstone. The outcasts rocked plaid shorts, duck boots and Girbaud jeans before you, too. So, it kinda makes sense then that Dre would take this love of fashion to the next level.

Benjamin Bixby is the clothing line birthed from Andre 3000’s colorful mind. Look at the pics. You know the guy’s style. We’ll call it a funky semblance of 30s era sensibilities with a flair for the dramatic. But rather than speculate on the labels the talented rapper/actor uses in his own description, we’d rather go to the man himself and get his thoughts on his new higher-end brand (items at Neiman Marcus and Barney’s range from $75 bowties to $1,595 leather jackets), his own style evolution and hip hop’s relevance to fashion.

BET.com: Describe a Benjamin Bixby man.

Andre 3000: He’s a person that understands the classics, but he doesn’t stay in the classic box. He’s a lil’ more adventurous. It’s not too outrageous. It’s only outrageous in spirit. I guess he’s not that person that put on clothes just to put them on. He actually makes an event out of it ‘cuz he really enjoys personal style. I would say he’s like the classic eccentric.

I like that term, classic eccentric.

At the end of the day, man, I love classics. They’ll never go away. It’s all in how you put it together and how you wear it. It’s the different colors and the different patterns that make it its own thing.

Explain your personal style evolution.

It’s spontaneous. It’s whatever you’re feeling that day. To do it, I have to go back even farther. Before me and Big Boi started Outkast, we met in high school. We were preppin’. In Atlanta, that’s tennis sweaters, riding boots and duck shoes. That’s the kind of thing we were doing as kids, finding new ways to rock clothes. We’d even buy red dye from the store just to make our colors. It was always a big concern about appearance. When we started Outkast and came out with the first album, Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, we represented something. Personally, I just didn’t want to fit in. I wanted to be a part of the music that I love. The style was more down-to-earth, I guess that’s what people would call it. Even at that time, we were wearing jerseys before people had thought about them. It was a cool thing that we did in Atlanta.

Moving forward, I’ve always just mirrored the music. With my influences from Parliament to Funkadelic and Sly Stone, Jimmi Hendrix and all these people, I loved the outrageous style. And their music was killer! At that time, I had a lot of influence from that style and it got a lot wilder. I was really just having fun on stage. A lot of those costumes that I wore, those were actually costumes that I drew out and got with a seamstress here in Atlanta and we actually made’em. When you’re watching the “Hey Ya” video, the pants, the shirts and all that kind of stuff was clothes I designed. From that point on, I was like, “Whoa, let me start my own brand.”

Moving forward, as my music got more sophisticated, so did the dress. I started to research and learn more about it, and I was bit. I know way more now than I knew five years ago. That’s pretty much where it is.

Let’s back up to the riding boots for a second. That was in high school, a time when kids can be pretty rough. Speak to the high school kid today who’s trying to set his own trends in class.

Just to clear something up, but Big Boi actually started that whole throwback jersey thing. I wore an actual Atlanta Braves jersey, but Big Boi had on an Astros shirt and that kinda crunk [the trend] up. I just wanna give him his props.

When it comes to having your own style, especially in high school, we were basically outkasts in school. We would wear Girbaud jeans and these colorful shirts. A lot of people in the school didn’t really understand the style, but what is is that when people talk bad about you, most of the time it’s because they’re jealous because they can’t be that fly. They have to find some way to make you feel out of place. I always feel that if another dude is jockin’ you, something is wrong with him anyway. Know what I mean?

Is hip hop still a trendsetter in fashion?

Oh yeah. Always. There will always be somebody in hip hop that’s trendsetting. And now, it’s even more widespread. When hip hop first started, it was just pretty much inner-city, ghetto kids listening to it. Now you got suburban kids and white kids checkin’ it out. I know the parents hate it, but it will always be here in some kind of way.

A lot of celebrities try the jump into fashion. Many fail. What will it take for Benjamin Bixby to remain on store shelves three or four years from now?

It’ll take the same passion that’s going in it at the beginning to keep it going. That’s basically what it is. I don’t know the background or the underbelly of other celebrity clothing brands -I wouldn’t like to call Benjamin Bixby a celebrity clothing brand- but a lot of times it’s just a money-making vehicle for people. It’s basically a deal where you license your name and they just make it. So, it’s not a lot of passion behind it. That’s why they don’t last. I think if you have ideas and you treat it like something close to you, I think it’ll last. I really can’t speak for a lot of other brands. As far as me and Benjamin Bixby, I’ve been trying to do this for, like, seven years. I did my research. I’m actually in the factories in Hong Kong. I’m in the factories in Italy. I’m learning it and making sure my stuff is the way I wanna see it. It’s my baby. I gotta stay with it. As far as longevity, it’s about passion, man. That’s all I can say.

As far as the Outkast line from some years back, was that your baby or did you just lend your name out for that?

To be honest, that’s what it was. We had some Korean investors. Around that time, we really didn’t know what we were getting into. Some people saw that we had style and they were like, “Hey, we can do an Outkast clothing company.” We were like, “Cool, we can make the stuff we wanna make.” But whenever I would say, “Hey, why don’t we make this,” the company we were dealing with, they were like, “Nah, that’s not cool. Let’s just try to make stuff like FUBU is doing. That’s what people are buying.” I was like, “What?!” To be honest, it was a learning process. I don’t fault anyone for it. The people that were in business with got into it for the money. There’s nothing wrong with that. I just think you have to know what your priorities are. Some people start clothing lines to make money. If you make money, you did what you set out to do. I don’t have no problem with that at all. The reason why I’m doing is because I set out to make the styles I wanted to wear, things I did not see, things I wanted to put on my back. If it happens to make money, man, that’s great. That means I can keep doing it.

TAGS: Andre 3000, Big Boi, fashion, Outkast

Comments (7)