Post by saturdaysheros on Sept 3, 2006 16:58:33 GMT -5
Like the streetcorner,the nightclub and the music gig, the football terrace is a place where street styles are born and bred.At least this is true in Britain, where the football stadium has long been a place where(predominantly working-class)males forge a communal identity which goes far beyond that of fans rooting for a particular team.Although men of all ages participate,it is the young who have most successfully translated such allegiance into a recognizable visual style.
It was on the football terraces that the Skinheads first appeared in mass in the late 1960's.By the late seventies,however,a very different look began to emerge.While the Skinheads had used their dress to show pride in their proletarian origins, this new style proclaimed personal success and wealth by means of prominent, upmarket labels like Lacoste, Inega, Lois and Burberry. But though a world away from the Skinheads' rough and ready(but always immaculately polished) 'bovver boots', this new style was also in the same Skinhead/Hard Mod tradition that had made a cult of pristine Fred Perry sport shirts.
The 'Casuals', as they came to be known early in the 80's, had crystallized in all but name by the late 70's.Great controversy still rages regarding precisely where this occurred. In his July 1983 article in The Face, 'The Ins And Outs Of High Street Fashion', Kevin Sampson makes what seems like a convincing case for locating their origins in the impoverished(yet mysteriously satellite-dished) Scotland Road area of Liverpool. According to Sampson, the young 'Scallies'(slang for Liverpudlians) who came from this area began 1977 with Punkish inclinations, picked up on the wedge-style haircut which David Bowie displayed on the cover of 'Low'and then quickly shifted into expensive sportswear and a more 'football oriented lifestyle' early in 1978.
Other sources insist that the look originated among the 'Perries' of nearby Manchester or among various London football fans. But cutting across all this regional rivalry is a general point which is of greater significance.
The success of British football in Europe during this period(and in the early 80's) encouraged a great many fans to attend away matches on the Continent. Contact with supporters there, especially in Italy and France - where stadiums have long been filled with men who look as if they have just stepped of a fashion catwalk - made the British determined to smarten up their act. If Britain could produce 1st class footballers, why should their fans look 2nd class? So the British balance of payments plummeted into the red as Lacoste, Fila, Ellesse, and Christian Dior laughed all the way to the bank.
Nor, I think, can one overlook the fact that the rise of the Casuals precisely matched the rise of Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, weren't the former the ultimate expression of the latter's philosophy? Pulling themselves up by their bootstraps by dint of cunning enerprise, always flying the flag, giving short shrift to the liberals and moaning minnies, the Casuals gave Thatcherism its most literal interpretation.
Their golden age ended, however, before the Iron Lady was shown the door. Some say it was the coming of rave and too much Ecstasy which distracted the Casuals from their perfection of sportswear chic. Others point to the tragedy which took place at the Heysel Stadium in Belgium in 1985 and which brought to an end the Casuals' sporting/shopping expeditions on the Continent.
Though I find it hard to generate much affection for the Casuals (aside from the violence, did their creativity ever extend much beyond an eye for the expensive?), it must be said that their influence has been great. Not only did they propel Rave on its way, they also paved the way for the phenomenal success of firms like Ralph Lauren and Stone Island in the 1990's. More than this, however, they ushered in a long overdue British menswear revolution. That sharpness of style and consummate attention to detail which characterized the early Mods (and, it should be said, many Skinheads) had been lost in the late 70's. Like the Mods before them, the Casuals turned Britain on to quality European menswear and, in their own way, helped to make men more open to the pleasures of narcissism.
AN EXTRACT FROM STREET STYLE-BY TED POLHEMUS
1
It was on the football terraces that the Skinheads first appeared in mass in the late 1960's.By the late seventies,however,a very different look began to emerge.While the Skinheads had used their dress to show pride in their proletarian origins, this new style proclaimed personal success and wealth by means of prominent, upmarket labels like Lacoste, Inega, Lois and Burberry. But though a world away from the Skinheads' rough and ready(but always immaculately polished) 'bovver boots', this new style was also in the same Skinhead/Hard Mod tradition that had made a cult of pristine Fred Perry sport shirts.
The 'Casuals', as they came to be known early in the 80's, had crystallized in all but name by the late 70's.Great controversy still rages regarding precisely where this occurred. In his July 1983 article in The Face, 'The Ins And Outs Of High Street Fashion', Kevin Sampson makes what seems like a convincing case for locating their origins in the impoverished(yet mysteriously satellite-dished) Scotland Road area of Liverpool. According to Sampson, the young 'Scallies'(slang for Liverpudlians) who came from this area began 1977 with Punkish inclinations, picked up on the wedge-style haircut which David Bowie displayed on the cover of 'Low'and then quickly shifted into expensive sportswear and a more 'football oriented lifestyle' early in 1978.
Other sources insist that the look originated among the 'Perries' of nearby Manchester or among various London football fans. But cutting across all this regional rivalry is a general point which is of greater significance.
The success of British football in Europe during this period(and in the early 80's) encouraged a great many fans to attend away matches on the Continent. Contact with supporters there, especially in Italy and France - where stadiums have long been filled with men who look as if they have just stepped of a fashion catwalk - made the British determined to smarten up their act. If Britain could produce 1st class footballers, why should their fans look 2nd class? So the British balance of payments plummeted into the red as Lacoste, Fila, Ellesse, and Christian Dior laughed all the way to the bank.
Nor, I think, can one overlook the fact that the rise of the Casuals precisely matched the rise of Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, weren't the former the ultimate expression of the latter's philosophy? Pulling themselves up by their bootstraps by dint of cunning enerprise, always flying the flag, giving short shrift to the liberals and moaning minnies, the Casuals gave Thatcherism its most literal interpretation.
Their golden age ended, however, before the Iron Lady was shown the door. Some say it was the coming of rave and too much Ecstasy which distracted the Casuals from their perfection of sportswear chic. Others point to the tragedy which took place at the Heysel Stadium in Belgium in 1985 and which brought to an end the Casuals' sporting/shopping expeditions on the Continent.
Though I find it hard to generate much affection for the Casuals (aside from the violence, did their creativity ever extend much beyond an eye for the expensive?), it must be said that their influence has been great. Not only did they propel Rave on its way, they also paved the way for the phenomenal success of firms like Ralph Lauren and Stone Island in the 1990's. More than this, however, they ushered in a long overdue British menswear revolution. That sharpness of style and consummate attention to detail which characterized the early Mods (and, it should be said, many Skinheads) had been lost in the late 70's. Like the Mods before them, the Casuals turned Britain on to quality European menswear and, in their own way, helped to make men more open to the pleasures of narcissism.
AN EXTRACT FROM STREET STYLE-BY TED POLHEMUS
1