“Formal” dress in incongruously loud colors, flashy jewelry etc. The stereotype.
Is this a real thing? Are pimps more apt to dress this way than others? (Obviously not all do, but the question is whether and to what extent the tendency exists.) If so, why? If not, then how did the stereotype get started?
The only thing that comes to mind is that perhaps in the pimping business it’s particularly important to project success in order to attract employees.
[Related note: per Wiki, some researchers have argued that the popular pimp stereotype - apparently not so much about clothing as the nature of the pimp-prostitute relationship - tends to be exagerated in popular media.]
I would guess it’s a real thing.
If you want people to take a chance on you, to invest their money with you, you need to look like you don’t need it. If you’re going to be a deadbeat, you need to at least not look like it upfront.
In terms of why garish colors and flamboyant styles, well that’s just generally a nightclub / entertainment thing. Even just doing a fairly routine admin job at a nightclub (but guest-facing) I needed to wear a red suit. A navy or grey suit just doesn’t look right in that environment.
At least that’s what it seems to me our mental image of “pimp”, at least in American-influenced culture, seems to come from. It’s the picture that pops into my head. And the person wearing the outfit can be of any ethnicity, but things like the broad brimmed hat with feather, the fur or animal-print accented long coat, unusual-color suit, etc. seem to have been drawn from those references.
Isn’t the answer similar to why the most successful male birds have the most outrageous display of feathers? A pimp is a “ladies man” who attracts the women he exploits through his sexual magnetism; clothes and jewelry being a big part of that. His women also get to take pride in contributing to the price of maintaining that image; keeping her man looking good is part of the reason she works so hard. The violence comes later.
That Snoop song is 20 years old and I can’t think of a reference to a more modern pimp, of whatever style of dress. Does the concept still exist in modern popular culture? The “profession” obviously exists: I mean does a special style of dress adhere to it that anybody would recognize?
Outside of entertainers playing a role (like Snoop) I think the style didn’t even make it into the 1980s before (like most Seventies fashion) becoming a joke. From 1988:
I’ve never seen a mamasan in traditional pimp clothes.
When we think pimp, we’re usually thinking black pimp. Not the Irish, or the Italians, or any other organized gang culture. It follows that what we think of as a pimp is an over-the-top version of urban black culture in itself. You get an over-the-top version of barber shop culture and self-care. Manicures, pedicures, a focus on moisturizing and obviously good looking hair. You mix that with an over-the-top version of the traditional shows of success and wealth like cars, clothes, and jewelry.
For an Italian pimp, during the same era, it might have been a perm, a members only jacket, gold chains, and a Miami Vice car.
I would say a combination of:
The RICO act putting a lot of pressure on gangs in the 1980’s and 1990’s made it easier for girls to be independent.
Increased neighborhood diversity and people meant that you didn’t have ethic gangs in the control of certain areas.
The rise of the internet, leading to less street walking in general.
Iceberg Slim wrote about being a pimp in the 1940s and 1950s. According to him an expensive wardrobe was a big part of being a pimp.
However back then, black people had almost no economic options in the mainstream economy. At best they could work at low level service sector jobs making mediocre money, so wearing expensive clothes, expensive jewelry, expensive cars, etc. were part of motivating women to sell their bodies for the pimp since both black men and women had no real economic prospects back then. A $300 suit was a lot more impressive when the alternative for a black woman was working as a domestic servant for $1 a day.
However, until Beau Brummell started the Men’s Suit down the road toward standardization, flamboyancy was seen as an unalloyed positive. But since him, and, incidentally, according to a pet theory of mine, since the rise of the rifle, making ostentatious costumes a detriment due to recognition by enemies rather than a bonus due to recognition by friends, there’s been a conflict between the color minimalists and the flamboyant.
