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Back in the late 1970's Football Fashion was set to change forever.
In the late 1970's lads who participated in football violence on the terraces of Great Britain were starting to get their collar's felt by the Police Forces of the UK who were slowly waking up to this phenomenon and acting to try to stamp it out. Most lads who participated in fighting at football were recognisable by their Skinhead haircuts and fashions and soon police were banning the wearing of Steel capped boots and even removing the laces from normal Dr Marten boots, and having great fun by throwing a big bundle of up to 80 lads bootlaces up in the air at the end of a match and shouting "come and get your laces then!" Many a time Skinheads would find themselves with one white lace and one black lace in their Dr Martens on a Saturday afternoon.
But things were about to change for good..
In the late 1970's. The Skinhead football lads started growing their hair into longer 'wedge' haircuts and discarding their Levis Red Tabs, Ben Shermans, Fred Perry's and Dr Martens for a much more expensive and subtle style. The Sports stars of the day were the top Golfers, and the main icons were from the Certre Court of Wimbledon..Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe and the clothes that these sporting stars wore was to form the birth of the 'Casual' movement. Sergio Tacchini, Fila BJ, Diadora Borg Elite and Adidas were now the uniform of the Football Casual and along with other expensive designer labels such as Pringle [from the golf courses of the Open], Giorgio Armani, Ellesse, Fiorucci and Lois. There is a difference of opinion as to who started the 'casual' fashion off. There is a chain of thought that the Scousers brought the labels back with them from their 'shopping sprees' [basically what we now call steaming or mass shoplifting] abroad, and it's true that without that then many a label such as Ellesse or Robe Di Kappa may never have seen the light of day in the UK. There is also the chain of thought that Londoners started it off from the 'Soul Boy' fashion that was worn by mainly South Londoners in soul clubs in the mid 1970s. Pringle jumpers and Crocodile shoes. I'm not going to voice an opinion either way as this is an argument that can never be won and has been going on as long as it's yet to go.
Such was the demand for this high quality, very expensive clobber that a lot of firms were not only having rucks with apposing firms but actually depriving the losers of their valuable wears. There was a famous time when a firm of Liverpool ambushed Tottenham outside Lime Street Station in Liverpool, leaving a lot of the North Londoners having to go back home in just their socks and underpants.
It was around this time when The Daily Mirror published a list of these Firm's names, some obviously made up by over enthusiastic journalists, but never the less, these names stuck and had other team's firms discussing in pubs and coming up with names for their own firms. Calling cards were then made and it seemed that every team in the country had it's own firm's calling card. This step by the Mirror was to make the football firms look almost glamorous and was in itself a recruting officer for football violence in the early 80's
The weapons of choice had changed as well. gone were the bog chains and staves carried by the bootboys, and along came the Jif lemon bottle filled with ammonia, and it's poorer cousin, the bottle of Olbas Oil and on a more vicious front the Stanley blade appeared in the hand of some. Scousers seem to get the blame for the latter, but it wasn't just them that carried the Stanley, but it was they who made it their trademark.
The taking of 'ends' became the focal point of all these modern day football 'firms' and many an afternoon was to be spent in all out warfare on a terrace to see who would take ownership of an end. To get into the home team's end was an art form in itself, fraught with danger as if you were spotted and were not yet in a large enough group, the game was up and you were out [often carrying the marks of your folly]. No matter what anyone says, the dawn of the casual and their ability to outwit and avoid police protection sewed the seeds of the worst period of football violence that Great Britain has ever witnessed and the period of 1984 - 1986 was particularly violent on the football firm front. Whole firms would turn up in strange towns, courtesy of Persil and their now imfamous two for one railcards which allowed the firms to not have to travel on the Football specials which were nothing more than cattle trucks, and allow them to travel on the main rail network. The casual clobber and non skinhead haircut was still it seems out foxing the police
As the decades rolled on, the casual fashion changed, with certain labels going 'out' and others coming 'in' the early 80's that was the time of Sergio Tacchini, Fila BJ, Ellesse, Giorgio Armani, Robe Di Kappa, Fiorucci, Lois [with splits at the hem], Clarkes, Benetton evolved into the late 80's and the sweatshirts and jeans of Ciao, Best Company, Classic Nouveaux, C17, Hardcore, Ball. then casual seemed to go 'Mad'..
The early 90's saw the birth of Acid House and the 'loved up' period of the football casual. Not only did the clobber go mad, with fellas that once would go mad if they got mud on their Adidas Wimbledon's wearing ripped up Levis, Patchwork tops from MASH, Converse All Star baseball boots [sometimes two different ones in different colours] and 'curtain' haircuts. This may not have been truly 'casual' in the true sense of the word, but it's where the football lads fashion went for a while and so is still regarded as a 'casual phase'
Not only did the clothes go mad, but also the people who were wearing it seemed to go off 'on one' for a while and partying with members of other team's firms that they'd once be tearing lumps out of each other. It's a common misconception that this was down to 'E's' often refered to as the 'love drug' The drug that everyone who attended these warehouse parties and Acid House nights were on. But truth be known it was more about the money that some of the top boys were earning together by hosting these parties or 'raves' The old 'South London/East London' hatred between Millwall and West Ham seemed to evaporate over night in some quarters, as both lads had common aims and money making schemes. Some of the friendships forged then are still well and truly alive today, and that maybe has lead to a lot of over 40's lads now tending to drink in the company of other over 40's lads from teams that once would be trying to kill each other
into the late 90's and 00'ies and the football casual fashion changearound seems to have got stuck in a groove with loads of lads still wearing Stone Island and CP Company [a brand that first came to the football casual scene in 1986] Armani Jeans, Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, Aquascutum. A new phase is surely due but doesn't seem to be on the horizon. the clothes are still expensive with CP jackets costing up to £800 a time, but the inventiveness has [hopefully temporarilly] gone. so much so that elder football casuals are now going back in time and buying up 1980's clobber from places like eBay to re-live some of the buzz they felt in that era just from pulling on a garment. also there is the dawn of 'Stealth Casual' with people buying high quality, non labelled but not necessarily expensive clobber from the likes of Marks and Spencer's Blue Harbour range.
The football violence itself has also moved on with the dawn of CCTV and a far more clued up police force. Nowadays it's near enough impossible to get a medium to large firm of fellas into any town onto any transport network without being picked up by the OB and 'wrapped up' [a police escort] And with the police's latest ploy of filming anything that goes on and not necessarily nicking anyone there and then, but biding their time , going through the CCTV, then systematically nicking everyone involved, dishing out excessive sentencing as well, has more or less seen the end of large scale disorder. A few things still happen, but you will never see the like of the 80's again
The football casual is still very much alive and well, but the reason for being a football casual in the first place seems to have got lost along the way in some people who wear the clobber. It will keep going for a long time in the future though, of that I'm sure. As it's a constantly moving fashion that will never die. The Casual is dead...Long live the Casual!
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