From Low to High: Fashion, Reggaeton, and Latino Male Idols

Over the past two decades, the reggaeton genre, a vernacular Latin American
music expression, has gone global. Its male performers have become active
participants in the fashion establishment, both in their home countries and
abroad. The reggaeton industry in Medellín, Colombia has played a key role in
this process. There, historically, masculinity and fashion have been opposing
concepts, as evidenced by the social scorn that the first manifestations of
dandyism underwent at the beginning of the twentieth century. Reggaetoneros
seem to have in common with those dandies a sensitivity to fashion. However,
overcoming rejection and living in a new era, this sensitivity is celebrated and
embraced, and serves as a boundary-pushing device in young, urban male
fashion. This marks an important change in a conservative society where
fashion-conscious men were seen as morally suspect. Since fashion literature
focuses primarily on the urban fashions of the Global North, this chapter aims
to contribute to the study of urban men’s fashion in a region of the Global South,
in particular, with a focus on Medellín, Colombia.