The Casuals
The football terrace, just like the club, has been seen to harbour subculture though the years. First the Skinheads took to the games in the late 60s in their anti-fashion, working class attire. But as the Skinheads way of life slowly died out something unusual replaced it, the Casual.
Most subcultures were able to truly blossom during the time of little technology and limited communication on TV and over the phone. Unlike what we see today where youth culture has less time to grow into something defined due to the fast paced, digitalised world we live in. By time the media gets wind of ‘something new’ they publicise it, package it and resell it to us before we’ve even noticed.
The Casuals had time to cultivate, and as the punks were still attracting all the attention at the beginning of the 80s this afforded even more time for the Casuals to grow into something as the media, journalists and trend spotters weren’t so much keeping an eye on what was going on at football stadiums nationwide.
Published in Issue 1 of Motion Magazine
There is much debate around where the ‘Casual’ subculture first came about, influential writer Phil Thornton in his book ‘Casuals: football, fighting and fashion, the story of a terrace cult’ begins the story in Liverpool. “As Punks musical influence waned after the initial shock of ’76, some of the residual fashion traits, such as drainpipe jeans and trousers remained intact. The success of Liverpool F.C both domestically and in Europe during 1977, when they won their first European Cup in Rome, also introduced Scousers to new, unheard-of labels and fashion items not available in Britain. Continental sportswear labels and training shoes, especially obscure German Adidas and Puma items, suddenly became popular with Merseyside’s match-going lads.”
The Scallies had an identifiable look, during 1977 this consisted of Lios Jeans, Stan Smith trainers and three-stripe Adidas t-shirts, but this evolved by the winter into Lios straight jeans, Adidas Samba and navy blue snorkel parkas. Wearing straight jeans in Liverpool at that time would have been a huge statement as flares where the norm. Peter Hooton Author of The End fanzine recalls, “people were laughed at, y’know: puffs, divvies, state of him.”
The uniform for a Casual is what it says on the tin, casual sportswear. But each supporting team had different traits that defined their loyal appreciation for their team and made them stick out as a group; hooliganism was rife during this time possibly because of the easy nature of spotting a group that ‘isn’t from around ‘ere’.
As UK football teams were playing so well, their die hard supporters began travelling to Europe to places like France and Italy where they would purchase designer sportswear such as Ellesse and Fila, this wasn’t the cheap stuff. Away and home football matches were filled with English supporters dressed to the nines in designer gear and now didn’t look so out of place next to a chic European supporter.
Subculture extraordinaire Ted Polhemus explained that subculture usually comes from working class backgrounds and each subcultural group either ‘dress up’ or ‘dress down’ to their working class origins. For example a skinhead would be considered as ‘dressing down’ with their Doc Martens boots and turn up jeans which actually more resemble work wear. This is the opposite to the Casual as they ‘dressed up’ above their working class status, with brands like Burberry and Lacoste forming part of their leisure wear looks.
The Casuals weirdly encapsulate Margaret Thatcher’s ideologies during her reign - that their ‘dressing up’ would bring them wealth and power. In a similar way to the Yuppie, dressing to impress was linked to good jobs, wealth and power. All of which were placed of high importance in 1980s England.
Like all good subcultures, the Casuals came to an end by the 90s. For a group that mostly split their time between the football terraces and nightclubs the arrival of the rave scene in the late 80s has been dubbed their killer. Maybe all the partying and ecstasy made them exchange hooliganism and the beautiful game, for dancing and free love.