Cross Colors
Cross Colors is an American fashion label whose products are particularly popular in the hip-hop subculture .
The label was founded in Los Angeles in 1990 by designer Carl Jones, a graduate of Otis Parson's School of Design . The brand was oriented towards the youth culture of urban African-Americans, claimed to tailor clothing without prejudice and with this concept it quickly became popular in the hip-hop subculture, but also beyond. Thanks to this success, parent company Solo Joint Inc. posted sales growth of nearly 500% in 1992, rose to become the tenth largest African American-owned company in the US, and was named Company of the Year by Black Enterprise magazine .
However, when the brand's biggest buyer, the retail chain Merry-Go-Round, went bankrupt in 1994, sales collapsed. The Cross Colors factory in Los Angeles was closed and the trademark rights sold. In 1999 the Group acquired Stage II Apparel Corp. (now Magic Lantern Group Inc.) the rights to the brand, under which a collection finally appeared again in 2001. Since then, the fashion designer Karl Kani has designed for the fashion label.
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- Shelly Branch: How hip-hop fashion won over mainstream America . In: Black Enterprise. Vol. 23, No. 11, June 1993, ISSN 0006-4165 , pp. 110-120.
- Sakina P. Spruell: where are they now? . Vol. 31, No. 1, August 1993, p. 164.