The casual

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...

is a subset of football culture that is characterised by the wearing of expensive designer clothing and

hooliganism Hooliganism is disruptive or unlawful behavior such as rioting, bullying and vandalism, often in connection with crowds at sporting events. A hooligan is a person that engages in illicit reckless behaviors and is a public nuisance. Etymology ...

. Many participants dislike the term 'casuals', preferring the term ‘dresser’, with regional variations including Perry boys, trendies, and scallies. The subculture emerged in the United Kingdom during the late 1970s, as a significant number of young men attending football matches began wearing clothing produced by designer sportswear brands, including

Burberry Burberry Group plc is a British luxury fashion house established in 1856 by Thomas Burberry and headquartered in London, England. It designs and distributes ready to wear, including trench coats, leather accessories, and footwear. It is l ...

, Fred Perry, Sergio Tacchini, Lacoste, Fila, Lyle & Scott, and Ellesse. In the 1980s, casuals also began to wear other Italian brands including Stone Island and C.P. Company. Casuals have been portrayed in films and television programmes such as '' ID'', '' The Firm'', '' The Football Factory'', and '' Green Street''. The documentary ''Casuals: The Story of the Legendary Terrace Fashion'' featuring Pat Nevin,

Peter Hooton Peter Joseph Hooton (born 28 September 1962 ) is the vocalist of Liverpool-based band (music), group The Farm (British band), the Farm. He was also its sole founder member in 1983, overseeing its rise to prominence with two top 10 singles in 199 ...

and

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amongst others is about the fashion that started in the late 70s and into the 1980s.

History

Casual subculture trainers tobacco and forrest hills

The designer clothing and fashion aspect of the casual subculture began in the mid-to-late 1970s. One well documented precursor was the trend of Liverpool youths starting to dress differently from other football fans – in Peter Storm jackets, straight-leg jeans and

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

trainers Sneakers ( US) or trainers ( UK), also known by a wide variety of other names, are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but are also widely used for everyday casual wear. They were popularized by compani ...

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

fans were the first British football fans to wear continental European fashions, which they picked up while following their teams at matches in Europe during their run of strong performance in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

and

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

in the 1970s and 80s. The other documented precursor, according to Colin Blaney, was a subculture known as ''Perry Boys'', which originated in the mid-1970s as a precursor to the casuals. The Perry Boys subculture consisted of Manchester football hooligans styling their hair into a flick and wearing sportswear, Fred Perry shirts and Dunlop Green Flash trainers.

References

External links

Casual Dress Essential
article from ''The Guardian''
Emotional Hooligan: Post-Subcultural Research and the Histories of Britain's Football GangsTransforming the terraces
article from ''Times Online'' (requires log-in) {{DEFAULTSORT:Casual (Subculture) Association football hooliganism Youth culture in the United Kingdom Fashion Socioeconomic stereotypes

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links