September 5, 2025
KUALA LUMPUR – About a decade ago, streetwear fans would camp overnight outside stores, lining sidewalks for hours just to snag the latest drop. The frenzy reached such extremes that some even paid for a Supreme-branded brick.
It symbolised both the absurdity and power of hype.
Today, mentioning streetwear would likely draw little reaction. Gen Zs do not get very excited when it comes to such staples like caps, hoodies or graphic tees.
Pestle & Mortar Clothing recently cleared its Instagram account before announcing a rebrand.
As one of Malaysia’s OG streetwear labels, is this a sign that the segment has totally lost its edge?
Co-founder of Pestle & Mortar Clothing, Hugh Koh, denies this.
He says it is less about streetwear fading and more about it having to grow up.
According to him, streetwear will live on, but not in the same manner.
Koh points to his own age – having turned 40 this year – and quips that neither people nor brands can stay young forever.
That, he says, is where the challenge lies.
While certain styles or trends remain unchanged, their fanbase inevitably grows older.
“The first 15 years brought us to a certain point in our journey, but I don’t think the same approach will successfully carry us to 30,” he remarks.
Sportswear – the current big thing – has captured the attention of luxury design houses.
“A lot of the brands that personally appeal to me right now are in the sportswear segment,” Koh comments, stressing it should never be mistaken for “gymwear”.
Read more: From gym to glam: Why the fashion industry is obsessed with sportswear right now
“It’s not that sportswear is the only cool thing – it’s just what’s catching my eye at the moment, and we’re definitely inspired by it.”
He goes on to say that streetwear brands that do not evolve, or resist change, will eventually disappear.
“Shoppers today are putting more value on individualism, rather than hype, especially with styles changing fast and wallets tightening in a tougher economy.”
As an example, Koh points to Supreme, once a global behemoth in streetwear, but no longer commanding the same level of awe.
For context, streetwear originated in the late 1970s and 1980s, emerging from skateboarding, hip-hop and punk subcultures.
While Koh maintains that the subcultures are still very much alive, in terms of design, it is now more towards creating selective pieces that last.
Pestle & Mortar Clothing has had numerous high-profile collaborations that span from international names like Warner Bros to local iconic companies such as Royal Selangor and Air Asia.
In Malaysia, streetwear labels like Stoned & Co, Peak KL, OPT and Against Lab have mushroomed in its wake over the long years.
Koh says the segment is now over-saturated, and everyone must carve out their own identity.
“The best way to describe our rebrand is that we’re creating our own version of streetwear – but it will still be streetwear,” he adds.
“Not only that, we’re aligning more closely with what we personally love: clean, quality pieces. That’s the essence of the rebrand.”
Streetwear’s imprint on luxury
Nigo is currently creative director at Kenzo, while Williams heads Louis Vuitton’s menswear division.
Jones stepped down from his role at Dior in January, but his resume already includes stints at major names such as Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Alfred Dunhill.
Notably, he was behind the famed Louis Vuitton and Supreme collaboration in 2017. It was a moment that made the industry sit up and take streetwear seriously.
In 2018, however, Jones was already calling for the term to be retired, arguing that it had been overgeneralised.
“You wear clothes in the street, so everything’s streetwear,” he told website Highsnobiety, in an interview that scandalised the fashion world.
Virgil Abloh, who was Louis Vuitton’s artistic director of menswear until his passing in 2021, further blurred the lines between luxury and street culture.
Through his own label Off-White, he championed a design language that mixed irony and youth-driven aesthetics with the craftsmanship of high fashion – cementing streetwear’s place at the very top of the style hierarchy during that era.
From a luxury perspective, it may just be a matter of preserving that rebellious attitude.
“We’ve seen brands like ADLV hold on to their DNA – oversized cuts, bold graphics, cultural storytelling – while existing alongside minimalist tailoring and refined design from brands like APC,” says Melium Group’s group general manager, Farha M Shaid.
The luxury retail company manages a portfolio of international fashion brands in Malaysia.
She adds that streetwear has not sold out after being co-opted by designer houses, and instead, has earned its place there.
“This blending mirrors a broader cultural reality. Boundaries between high and low, street and salon, are dissolving, and fashion is the ultimate storyteller of that shift.”
Farha notes that the streetwear scene in Malaysia has indeed evolved.
“What began as a hype-driven scene has grown into a more discerning market, where style is still important but quality and longevity are equally valued,” she explains.
“The shift from hype-driven buys to curation shows that streetwear has entered a more discerning era – where the focus is on thoughtful choices, elevated quality and personal expression.”
Here, she gives an example of wearing a perfectly cut MCM blazer matched with premium sneakers like Roger Vivier.
Read more: Fashion’s new power move? Turning away from influencers and the overhyped
What’s next for streetwear?
Perhaps streetwear should not be competing with other aesthetics.
It can co-exist with sportswear and technical wear, categories that share its focus on practicality – paving the way for the next style shift.
That evolution, says director of Cabbeen Malaysia Keith Hooi Woei Jian, is already underway.
“Consumers now want pieces that are versatile, sustainable and timeless,” he explains. “It’s less about logo-heavy statements, and more about quiet confidence.”
For Cabbeen, which was founded in China in 1997 with street culture at its core, this means reimagining what streetwear can look like.
Oversized cuts and bold graphics have given way to cleaner silhouettes, workwear-inspired jackets in luxe materials, and design-led staples built to last.
It is a shift that mirrors the evolution of its customers, who are maturing, travelling more, and demanding both style and substance.
Cabbeen already has two stores in Malaysia, with plans to expand rapidly across the country and into South-East Asia – proof, perhaps, that streetwear is still very much alive, even if in a new form.
Hooi acknowledges that streetwear’s raw, rebellious roots have softened since luxury houses embraced it in the 2010s.
Rather than seeing this as a decline though, he views it as an opportunity for reinvention.
The spirit of streetwear, he says, can live on – not in chasing hype, but in disrupting trends, protecting authenticity, and finding new ways to merge culture with craftsmanship.
The question now is not whether streetwear is over, but what it will become.
As more brands explore functionality, sustainability and personality-driven design, streetwear may not vanish but transform – co-existing with other aesthetics while carving out its next identity.
Its future lies not in what it was, but in how it evolves.