Human meme and professional showman DJ Khaled attended the 2016 MTV's Video Music Awards in a navy Goyard bomber jacket. This was intriguing, considering the luxury French brand produces luggage and leather goods, not outerwear. And this didn't go unnoticed.

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Goyard quickly took to Twitter to dispel any rumors that the bomber might be an official piece, whether a one-of-one custom piece for Khaled or a sign of things to come. From its official account, Goyard retweetwed images of Khaled, complete with the (now-deleted) terse commentary:

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Luckily, it turns out Khaled was just a little more on the up-and-up than Goyard seemed to expect. First he tweeted about his approach to creating the item:

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And eventually Goyard hit back with a note about the disputed item's provenance. (It's also since been deleted.)

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Perhaps not the most pleasant foray into the spotlight for the centuries-old luxury maker. But before we get into the current state of things, a history lesson.

The French company's origins date back to 1792, under the name House of Martin, which was created by Pierre-François Martin. But the named changed in 1853 when François Goyard took over the high-end travel luggage of the French bourgeoisie. Goyard expanded the brand's operations and that business acumen was continued by his son, Edmond, who created the signature Goyardine canvas.

In its New York City Upper East Side location, the company proudly displays a document confirming that Napoleon the III only used Goyard luggage. By the early 20th century, Edmond's work saw his product carried by contemporary elites like the Rockefeller family. But by the late 20th century the brand was financially struggling, and in 1998 the Goyard family sold to a French businessman Jean-Michel Signoles.

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Early introduced to the fashion, Signoles was just a teenager when he founded the French clothing line Chipie. When he approached Goyard in the mid 1990s, the Goyard family was struggling and pumping their own money into the company to cover their substantial losses. Within a decade, Signoles re-established Goyard's traditional roots by setting up production in Carcassonne, France. He expanded the brand's retail footprint beyond a single Parisian storefront. Today, Goyard has retail locations in Mexico City, Milan, Tokyo, and San Francisco, and is sold at numerous Barneys stores.

Notoriously, Goyard refuses to engage in e-commerce. Unlike brands such as Louis Vuitton and Versace, Goyard never participated in the late 20th Century democratization of luxury, eschewing licensing its products into perfumes or even a hotel. It's a double-edged sword. On one hand, the brand benefits from not seeing its product copied and reduced down to a cheap pop-culture artifact. On the other—beyond the potential revenue lost—it seems stubbornly removed from the modern flow of fashion.

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But that anti-internet stance may be paying off in at least one way: The brand has become something of a hip-hop obsession as of late.

Last year, Complex traced the first mention of Goyard to 2006, in the songs "Liquid Swords" and "It Was A Great Day," by Pharrell, an artist who's well known for being on the bleeding edge of fashion. Kanye West rapped "The fur is Hermes, shit that you don't floss / The Goyard so hard man, I'm Hugo's boss" in "The Glory," on his 2007 album Graduation, and in 2009 he showed up to Paris Fashion Week carrying a Goyard trunk outside of the Comme des Garçons show.

Recently, Goyard found itself back at rap's forefront: last year, Fabolous wrote "Goyard Bag," which included the lyrics "Look I just think shorty like my go hard swag / Turn my brown bags to a Goyard bag." Featured guest on "Bad and Boujee," Lil Uzi Vert frequently references the brand in the songs "7am," "Buy It," and "All My Chains." And post-internet rap sensations Lil Yachty and Playboi Carti can be spotted wearing Goyard belts and wallets.

Unlike other brands in the space, Goyard de-prioritizes its own logo, It's recognizable, if you're paying attention; but Goyard doesn't shout about its own image. In that way, it's an outlier for both luxury fashion and rap music: Where both prefer bold projection, Goyard speaks with an inside voice.

The 1980s saw many rappers—along with athletes and drug kingpins—dressed by Dapper Dan, the Harlem-based designer, whose work would take logos from Chanel, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton and turn them into tracksuits and bomber jackets never seen on their runways. Dan's remixed luxury aesthetic predated Tom Ford at Gucci, and Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton: designers who embraced a logo-centric and obvious display of luxury.

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A Goyard bag onstage with Migos.

One early high point of the intersection between rap and high fashion was 1996, when Tupac modeled for Versace. Yet in 2016, that relationship is closer than ever: Kanye West appears in ads for Balmain, Travis Scott in ads for Saint Laurent. Goyard missed the first wave, and this current wave is cresting largely without the company's active involvement. That's kind of the appeal: With its underexposed but distinctive Y-pattern prints, Goyard retains an old-school luxury sensibility that is increasingly rare.

Yet that exclusivity appears to be in danger with so many people ready to co-op the brand. On Instagram it's hard to not see rappers proudly displaying their own Goyard bags on and off private jet flights. Last year in Midtown Manhattan, Queens-born, Atlanta-raised rapper Rich the Kid said he recalled that Kanye West was his first touchstone for Goyard, followed by A$AP Rocky. Even though he's been in early on the brand in this latest moment of popularity, he saw the through line of picking it up from Migos, the Atlanta rap trio, who themselves got on it from Rocky. Goyard, to Rich The Kid and certainly his peers, represents a value that money simply can't buy.

Although he was quick to note, with a glimmer of pride, "Goyard costs more than Gucci."

From: Esquire US