There's so much stress and strife in the world today, it's fitting that the struggle-with-a-smile rude boy vibe of Jamaica is resonating with designers and consumers. Of course it helps that there's an increasing melting-pot influence in menswear in general, with myriad movements and styles from around the globe inspiring design like never before.

But just as reggae music evolved from American R&B to become an unlikely worldwide phenomenon, Jamaican style is set to do the same. Labels from Dior to Puma down to Rockers NYC and King Stampede are incorporating the rhythm of the island into their product lines. Long gone are the novelty tees and mall rasta caps, and in their place are smart and soulfully informed items, and even entire lines, that reinterpret and twist the rude boy culture into looks that do justice to an island-revolutionary aesthetic.

Throughout the '60s Jamaicans wore a lot of colonial-style suits, but the increasing popularity of reggae and rude boy culture ushered in a more rebellious style during the '70s. "It's really an evolution of life in Jamaica," says Rohan Marley, son of the legendary Bob Marley. "You check pictures of my dad in the '60s, and you see him in a three piece suit, but then it evolved into rude boy rebellion. A revolutionary outlook led people to more denim and army fatigues, stuff where you can fall down and get up, and say, ‘Yeah, I can wear this later!'"

Marley has taken his heritage of Jamaican style and channeled it into Tuff Gong Clothing, a men's fashion line inspired by the Tuff Gong himself. "He wore stuff that was rugged and represented him, Tuff Gong-the roughness, with militant vibes, but classic," says Marley.

And what of the increasing competition, the designers not from Jamaica who are incorporating the country's red, green, and yellow, as well as the military and island influences?

Marley slyly references one of his father's famous lyrics, saying, "Some are leave, and some are branches, but I and I are the roots."


From left: T-shirt by Riddim Driven; T-shirt by Cooyah; jacket and T-shirt by Tuff Gong


From left: Sunglasses by Electric Shades; hat by Lrg Home // STYLE // STYLE FEATURES // Revolution in Style