Style Profile: Jack Parow

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20 June 2013

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Style Profile: Jack Parow

The rise of the Zef Afrikaner is as exciting as the emergence of Kwaito. Remember TKZ and Mandoza? The cool cat underdog raps about the everyday and all of a sudden white girls are jiving along and busting rhymes they cannot pronounce. Phrases like ‘one time’ and ‘pantsula for life’ are as much a part of our lingo as ‘bootylicious’. This time it’s the quirky Afrikaners leading the Msanzi pack. I got a chance to catch up with front-runner of this phenomenal movement, Jack Parow, to talk about his recent show with Snoop, leopard print and what it means to be a style icon.

When you say ‘Beatles’, I think John Lennon, small round shades. When you say ‘Rolling Stones’, I think Mick Jagger, super tight white skinny jeans. ‘Michael Jackson’, red embellished leather jacket, torn gloves. ‘Jay Z’, Bomber jacket, expensive jeans, peak cap. And so it goes on. More often than fashion authoritarians care to admit, musicians (with zero fashion academia or accreditation behind them) evolve and drive fashion trends. The likes of the Die Antwoord and Jack Parow are doing that right now. Okay, so maybe not every teen wants to pull off the freaky Yolandi Visser vibe but there is an overall excitement about being anti commercial and embracing who you are. Who would have ever, in a million years, thought that Afrikaans rap would be cool. The thing is, the lyrics are so simple it’s genius.

That’s the best way I can describe Zander Tyler aka Jack Parow. Quite simply he’s an artist. A creative beast with a love for hip-hop and rap, he grew up listening to the likes of Snoop Dogg and all ‘them rappers’. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t a gangster from west side Cali. The hip-hop beat resonated with him. He is simply and always will be the white Afrikaans kid from Melville who followed his creative heart, who can throw down a few beats too, waxing lyrical about his life in the ‘burbs, and now he opens for his once idol. You see, simply genius.

He even took a poster that he has from the early 90’s of Snoop for the man himself to sign. How sweet is that?

It seems that staying simple is the overriding theme with Jack Parow. He tells me that he dresses to be comfortable because if you’re comfortable you can be yourself. He doesn’t try to be anybody else besides that. He also mentioned that his worst menswear trend is boys wearing monster peaks (Hallelujah). As he was explaining this to me it made me think of that awfully famous quote from the one and only Coco Chanel. Her words are “Fashion may come and go but only style remains”, the pair use different words but they are both trying to say the same thing.

We spoke a bit about the idea of the reincarnation of an artist. Where some people see it as a gimmick he describes it as a natural progression for an artist. This resonates with his original thoughts on style. Snoop might have been the king of hip-hop; now that he’s a Rasta we all know he’ll be the smoothest one we ever did see.

This led us on to discuss our mutual fondness of leopard print. During his recent tour in Mzansi Snoop Lion caused a stir wearing a real leopard skin on stage. We agreed, we are both poacher and animal cruelty haters but if the pieces are a result of a bygone era then there’s no serious implications to using them. I felt enlightened, I inherited a stack of fur from my great gran and I’ve had them hidden in chest from PETA for years. I’m excited to bring them back to life.

Unlike my dirty little fur secrets Jack Parow’s most treasured items are his black leather jacket and a pair of yellow hi tops. When asked I expected him to say that his iconic oversized leopard print peak would win the title of ‘most treasured wardrobe item’ but it would seem that even his moustache trumps the OTT peak.

There’s still no doubt, when you say ‘Jack Parow’, I’ll still think of that crazy peak, but I’m so glad I got to meet the guy under it. What a stylish gem, I’m sure Coco Chanel would approve.

Who is Miss Buttons? She's a self confessed "fashion hustler" who loves every part of her not so straightforward job. She also just happens to be our resident style guru at ZAlebs!