After one night of going through a YouTube binge, specifically a random DJ Khaled bender, I fell into a k-hole of his over-the-top music videos and became fascinated by the producer’s style. When he wasn’t shirtless and zipping around on his Snapchat-famous jet ski, his style was luxurious! Lavish! Even boisterous! In one video, he lazed by the pool in a plush open robe, the back emblazoned with his signature “key,” or he opted for a casual lounge vibe, wooing a video vixen on a pink velvet couch in the middle of a fantastical garden, donning an unbuttoned floral print silk shirt and a neck full of hefty, gilded chains. Khaled is no small guy, either: He’s dressed to be heard and, of course, seen—and he pulls off those outré getups entertainingly well. As my editor refers to it, Khaled has “big man swag.”
It’s a refreshing, opulent look. Mythological even. See his album cover for Major Key? In a cloud of heavenly roses, Khaled sits on a throne in an all-black body guard ensemble with a layer of bling around his neck, sporting a massive, glinting watch, and yes, accessorizes the whole look with a mammoth lion. Khaled’s larger-than-life aesthetic is a far cry from the meek boys who dabble in normcore and is a palette cleanser from the skinny teenage Supreme hypebeasts that have infiltrated Instagram. Whether he is promoting TurboTax on Instagram in a retro track jacket or holds a super-sized golden key in a paisley buttondown, Khaled’s flash-forward style matches his infectious personality. I am not the only one who has become slightly infatuated with the Khaled phenomenon. As my West Coast colleague Cameron Bird wrote via text: “There was something about a three-quarter zip pullover mixed with a chain bracelet that sent tingles through my body.” Noted.
So why is Khaled s style so alluring? Well, for one thing, big-man swag has been historically associated with powerful traits. Consider some of the most stylish rulers in history: King Henry VIII of England, himself a man on the larger end of the size spectrum, was equally known for his flamboyant fashion. The monarch’s Tudor cuffs were perfectly puffed; his multiple layers of sumptuous outerwear and bulky armor were made to exaggerate his broad shoulders. Or take the barrel-chested Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Ahmed I and his frothy green velvet robe: domineering, decadent, decidedly regal. Or fast-forward to some of the titans of pop culture. Sure, he’s not technically royal lineage, but Rick Ross (who happens to be a good friend of DJ Khaled) might as well be. In a ruby red shirt, with a huge gold medallion swinging from his chest, his very presence is commanding. Hell, even his pinky ring is the size of a small country.
The concept of big-man swag has trickled down onto the runway recently, as well. In Spring 2017, Balenciaga Men’s showed a meme-worthy sets of exaggerated suits and jackets, which were far too big for the models and turned them into cartoonish pin-heads. More recently, the epically proportioned look was taken to fantastical levels at Thom Browne’s Fall 2017 men’s show: Gray suits came in a supersized XXXL versions, almost twice as large as the models themselves. Too big for their britches? It appeared so. Just know that with a little bit of glitz and glam, Khaled could easily pull off the look. Major key alert, indeed.