Normski: 'Homey, Don't Play That' - Hip-Hop Connection August 1994

Writer/Stylist: Paula Daniel
Photos: Richard Reyes

Is he shy? Reserved? Inhibited? Nervous? Never! From a street-smart photographer who shot most of the world’s rap community to the recognized media face of British rap and dance thanks to the success of BBC2’s TV show Dance Energy, Normski’s career has been a major success.

As well as communicating through music and photography, Normski likes to set the pace in fashion. He says, “No one touches Ski-zer!” as he feels he has the energy, originality, and personality to drop the livin’ style.

Orchard Street in New York and London is where you’ll find Normski checkin’ out what’s happenin’ when it comes to buying clothes, but he says that he generally buys things wherever he happens to be—dare I say—in the world.

Through travelling, he’s accumulated collections of T-shirts, baseball caps, watches, and accessories, which he feels play an important part when building an outfit. He says, “If it ain’t a dope haircut it has to be a dope baseball cap!” He goes on to assure me that his clothes are not involved with freaky acid-like patterns or designs, saying, “I’m not in with all this Stussy funky wild stuff. I think I project enough wildness in my character to be able to wear what I like, which is big bright colours!”

Normski is a person who dresses for himself. He never lets labels influence him in the garms he pulls from the shelf—if he’s turned on by an individual piece, then that’s what his money is going on.

Having said this, there are some things in life that we are hooked on and prefer—in his case, suede trainers. He says that he loved the original homey-style footwear, the Puma suede-tops, when they first came out, but as time moves on he now busts everyone’s favourites—Fila, Champion, and Ewing—in the biggest and brightest way, of course.

As you all know, Normski was known as an artist behind the camera—what’s it like to trade places? He admits it felt strange at first because, as a photographer, he knows exactly how he would like the shoot to go, but the bottom line is that Normski never lets negative vibes interfere with what he is doing, so basically he enjoyed the shoot.

For Normski, confidence and personality are the things in life that carry us through everything, and he relates this concept to fashion by saying, “You can put anything on as long as you’re confident in what you’re wearing and how you wear it.”

Confidence in fashion should start when you first enter a shop and make a decision. Bad taste comes into play when you don’t care about what you buy, or if you buy what your friend’s donnin’ and you buy it without any thought.

Respect goes out to Normski for hypin’ up the fashion page with a positive, down-to-earth attitude, and for chattin’ dope lyrics when it comes to style. He finishes with: “Style to me is not just fashion. As far as I’m concerned, how I look is how I am.”