It’s the early 1980s and football’s Casual era has been alive, and literally kicking, for several years on the terraces and in the streets around football grounds across Britain.
As recently highlighted, during its emergence, the subculture Football Casuals went largely unnoticed and undocumented by the mass media. Young men going to watch football week in-week out with their mates only made the news when groups of fans clashed with rival opposition supporters. Arrests were made, headlines written, and football’s bad reputation was thrown into the spotlight, or rather, under the bus, time and time again.
For those in the know, something else was also bubbling up. It was movement that would shape how young men in Britain would dress for generations to come and years later we’d witness in books, exhibitions and galleries around the world. The Football Casual look.
And so it was that almost 40 years ago, cult magazine The Face commissioned an article that for the first time drew the focus away from the violence and onto the designer labels football fans were adopting as their uniformed look, and how that look was now become more prevalent amongst the masses.
In that July 1983 edition, AwayDays author Kevin Sampson and music journalist Dave Rimmer reported on ‘The ins and outs of high street fashion’, with the label being more important than overall style. Sampson reflected how the it had all begun on the terraces in Liverpool in 1977 (Liverpool fans taking inspiration and garments form their away trips across Europe), whilst Rimmer looked at how ‘the look’ was now being more broadly adopted by youths, not necessarily football fans wanting to be involved in a punch-up with a rival group.
As Sampson remembers it for The Face, “I had sent the piece to The Face a couple of years before it eventually ran. I got a nice note back: ‘Sounds cool, but it’s a bit niche for us.’ Then about May ’83 Nick Logan (The Face Editor) asked me to update the feature and resubmit it. Up until the summer of ’83 it was a cult with no unifying name: Scals in Liverpool, Perries in Manchester, Dressers in Leeds. Every city had its own thing going on. But The Face article, for the first time, gave the scene a unifying banner: Casuals.”
Down South, and for that same edition of The Face magazine, music and fashion photographer David Corio was to photograph some of these ‘Casual Kids’, proudly showing off their labels in east London.
“I shot a bunch of Casuals for The Face magazine – young kids wearing fancy Italian sweaters, Sergio Tacchini, Lyle & Scott, Pringle etc, which I found fascinating, but also how young the kids were. I took the photos in Wanstead Park in east London. West Ham was the nearest ground so I would imagine they would have supported them especially as their fans were known for wearing these sorts of clothes. I think they were about 14 years old.”
“By the time we did the shoot it was dusk and the light was going quickly so they are very grainy shots. The tall boy in the Ellesse shirt and Fila top was the son of The Face’s editor Nick Logan and the rest were some of his friends.”
“Football fans are a microcosm of the population really aren’t they? The average fan that goes to a game in their teens and twenties are bound to be aware of a mixture of clothing styles and music especially from the larger cities and travelling fans are likely to see what the opposition fans are wearing.”
David Corio
Not a Casual himself, but with his eyes permanently fixated on changing youth cultures, Corio recognised this subculture taking on a more mainstream appeal amongst young men.
Arsenal fan Corio was born in Ealing, West London, but after a spell growing up in Gloucestershire, moved to Islington in the 80s. “I lived in north London and would go to Chapel Market at the weekend and you started to see the fancier track suits and tops that were sporty but smarter than the usual knock-offs and a lot more pricey too. There wasn’t a female equivalent at all was there?
“There were so many different youth cultures and styles coming and going then and this was one of them that lingered for a while. There would be anything from the goth / new romantics and punkier stuff that was pretty much dying off but still lingering, Hip Hop style that would be wearing more sporty track suits. especially Adidas and then The Face had highlighted the Hard Times chic with denim jackets and torn jeans.
“It was a departure from the long hair look and was far more typically stylish clothes – you wouldn’t be seeing a Casual wearing a bobble hat or wearing a scarf at a match!
“Football fans are a microcosm of the population really aren’t they? The average fan that goes to a game in their teens and twenties are bound to be aware of a mixture of clothing styles and music especially from the larger cities and travelling fans are likely to see what the opposition fans are wearing. Musical tastes probably plays a major part. I’ve always been fascinated with Northern Soul fashions – that really was a stand out style and never really replicated anywhere.”
Through the ‘80s, whilst the look would evolve, different groups of fans around the country taking and adding different elements. By the ‘90s, parts of the casual look was so familiar, most who’d never set foot in a football ground oblivious to its origins. Bands like Oasis and Blur took the look into the Brit pop world and the rest you could say is history.
“I’m a big reggae fan and there were strong links with ska with mods and skinheads from early days. The links between football and music is more noticeable these days the way stadiums play certain tunes – Arsenal have Louis Dunford’s ‘The Angel – North London Forever’ that gets sung before games though Chelsea’s ‘Liquidator’ by Harry J All Stars is more up my street – not the team, obviously. I always liked the theme to Z Cars at Everton was a nice nostalgic tune. I wonder how many of their fans are old enough to know where it originally came from?!
“I think the sportier side to it is pretty ageless isn’t it? Whatever your age wearing a track suit looks OK. If you have a large gut maybe not so much, and wearing those tight sweaters looks even worse. So many people love a logo too as it can be a sign of what you have paid for something or what brand you might follow. I have just been reading ‘Gomorrah’ by Roberto Saviano and he claims that about 80% of all of these brands are all knock-offs.”
I’ve always been drawn to photographing youth cultures and different music styles really. I’ve been lucky to photograph different musicians and the different trends and fashions that go along with them over quite a period. Historically those fashions cross over to the general public and some to football fans – be it Skinheads, Casuals, etc though you don’t see too many New Romantics or goths at football matches.”
Nearly 40 years on, no doubt the scene has evolved, both the fashion and the culture of a Football Casual is still massive.
If you enjoyed that, you may also like Pompey Casuals or A Photo Diary of Football Casuals.
Check out David’s other fantastic photographic work on his Instagram.
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