Highway Hip-Hop Fashion
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You should not get me wrong, this is not a new trend in fashion but a store in U.S. Highway 441 offering Urban wear, the classic fashion that came hand in hand with hip hop culture. This singular store is located nearby Leesburg, in Lake County, Florida, and is privately owned by Ujay and Neelam Patel, a Canadian matrimony who keeps an eye, and multiple suppliers, in California, New Jersey, and New York fashion markets.
The Patels are aware of changes in fashion trends that often make women and men dress in similar style, but sometimes fashion comes with well defined patterns in which jean pockets and t-shirts for the youngster males differ from capri pants for women, not to mention that in tastes beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
This original store has an interesting background in the Patels’ Shell gas station-convenience store. “We started some clothing at the Shell station. We put some clothing over there for the guys, and the girls said, ‘Where’s our clothes?” said Ujay Patel recalling the summer of 2007 when the idea to open a store came to his mind after two years operating only the gas station.
Today, Neelam says “We are going to expand more for girls and shoes,” since the 2,400-sq ft store has proven to be a huge success in the region and, when it comes to color, people seem to have specific choices for each season, bright colors in spring and summer and browns and oranges during fall and winter.
Fancy or not, you would probably agree with me, different strokes for different folks.

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