Label Love: Claw Money’s Street Chic

Here’s a short story to illustrate the legend that is CLAW: The other night I watched a rerun of Cold Case about a graffiti kid who gets murdered in the early nineties (he wanted to be an artist, not a thug, people). At first you suspect his girlfriend, one of the only girls “tagging” (every time they said the word “tagging” it sounded like it was in quotation marks) in Philadelphia during the time of this unsolved murder. Her name was Talon (because “once she gets her claws in you, watch out”), her signature color was orange, and she didn’t do it (if you’re curious, it was the thug leader of a thuggish graffiti crew). The meandering point of this episode synopsis is that Talon was at best a wack facsimile of CLAW.

CLAW money, also known as Claudia, also known as a few epithets not fit to print, is the real deal. At a time where there were pretty much no women getting up (Talon notwithstanding), CLAW spent the late eighties and early nineties quite literally making her mark all over New York City. (Or her case, her paw print). These days Miss Claudia has a clothing line full of fashion-forward items with a street edge: the slouchy tees, fine jewelry in eccentric shapes, and her touted sunglasses are coveted by the likes of MIA and Rihanna.

Check out some of her neck-breaking pieces below, and make sure to follow CLAW on Buzznet!