“Fresh Dressed” was produced by Nasir Jones, aka the rapper Nas, whose 2014 documentary “Time Is Illmatic” is a far superior meditation on what writer Chester Himes called the similarities between absurdity and reality in Black life. “Fresh Dressed” does deserve credit, however, for touching on this notion, acknowledging the painful truth that looking “fresh” was a Catch-22 for poor kids. The latest fashions weren’t cheap back then, and they still aren’t. Yet there is no price too steep if it buys one some self-esteem. “You had roaches and rats in your house,” one person says, “and yet, when you stepped out looking good, none of that mattered.” Everybody in your neighborhood knew how poor you were, so an opportunity to dress like royalty, regardless of circumstance, was too good to pass up. Even if it meant risking the chance you might get shot for your shoes, or have your doorknocker earrings ripped out of your ears in a run-by.
The throwback elements of “Fresh Dressed” are probably enough for most people to thoroughly enjoy the film. But nostalgia only gets you so far, and I hungered for more sustenance. But since we’re on the subject of nostalgia, beg me the indulgence of telling a brief story I remembered while watching this film. When Run-DMC showed up onscreen, I recalled how badly I wanted to dress like them. My parents had five kids, however, and they were too broke to indulge my fashion whims. So I got a paper route, which was absurd for someone who couldn’t ride a bike AND who lived in a neighborhood full of bite-happy dogs. But I did that route, and then another and another, saving my tips until I was able to buy a leather outfit and some Adidas that, full disclosure, fell off a truck.
I wore that outfit on Easter, and my look was immortalized in a picture my mother took of me and my cousins. The kid in that picture, whose heart was full of the splendor of looking “fresh,” would have enjoyed “Fresh Dressed” far more than the cynical old man he became.
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