Clothing & Goods


	East Coast Skinheads \| home Skin Culture \| Skinhead Stomping Grounds \| Clothing & Goods \| Power & Glory Resources \| Shows \| Skinheads.net \| Sharps (UK) \| Fight Ignorance FAQs/Contact Laces and Braces This page was created by «I have taken the following from the book Spirit of 69» (To find out where you can go shopping for some of these articles, check HERE <http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/carmelita/238/whereclothes.htm>) From A to Z Airtex Make of shirt Astronauts Once popular make of eleven hole boot, so called because the air wair sole was like walking on the moon. That's what it says here anyway. Blazer Yep, standard blazers with silver buttons were a suedehead favourite. Often in football team colours with a club patch sewn on to the breast pocket. Blooding Anyone with new boots is risking a blooding, with all your mates doing their best to stamp on them to make them dirty. Also called christening. Boots Originally studded army boots with steel toe caps, NCB boots, monkey boots or anything else you could get your hands on, but eventually DMs became top dog, not least because steelies were classed as an offensive weapon. Cherry red and black were most popular, although black boots lost their appeal for some when black DMs became standard issue for plods. Other boots came in brown or tan. Bowler Hat Suedehead and Clockwork Orange headwear. Braces Meant to hold your trousers up, but usually worn for style. [...] Sometimes worn over a thin pullover or tanktop. Wider originally than the quarter inch common today with half inch, 1" and even 2" being sported. they were also worn over the shoulder and not around your bum until punk came along. Brogues Lace up shoe with holes punched over the toe and down the sides to form a pattern. Black, brown or burgungy in colour. Steel toe caps were an optional extra. In the States they are commonly known as Cordivans and were worn by the FBI. Also available as a very smart boot. Brutus Make of shirt, including the best tartan ones available. Brutus Gold were excellent button down checks. Also a make of jeans, but never really popular in skinhead circles. Cardigan Fred Perry makes them so they must be okay. Chunky ones with pockets look best, but remember to leave the bottom button undone. Combats Army camouflaged jackets and trousers worn by original skins, but are now mainly the preserve of boneheads. Shame. Combs Not much use when you've got a crops. Still, in '69, hair that was long enough to be combed did pass for skinhead fashion. Steel combs were all the rage anyway, not leats because the sharpened one makes a handy tool. Carried in your back pocket so all our mates knew you had one. Corduroy Now it's into the just when you thought you were safe department. You can run, but you can't hide! Curduroy jackets and trousers made by Levi's, Lee and Wrangler were quite popular in the Seventies. Cravats Usually paisley pattern and tucked into a shirt or blouse collar. Ties worn at weddings, funerals and when made to at school. Crombie Despite what you may have read elsewhere, crombies were not post-1970 suedehead wear. They have been the mainstay of shady deals and gangsters for decades, and were picked up by the skinhead cult as early as '68. Check out the 1969 film Bronco Bullfrog if your mates don't believe you. Short for Abercrombie, a genuine made to measure one would break the bank, so most make do with cheaper imitatons, often with a lining of cheaper still red satin. Even here's quality and crap so for for one with some weight behind it, and a left breast pocket so you can shove a hanky in it. Velvet collars are a nice touch too. Donkey Jacket Good enough for dockers, miners and labourers, and certainly good enough for their sons and daughters too. Best ones have waterproof orange or black plastic at the top of the back, and a nice touch would be to have NCB or the like stamped across it. Names were often written on the plain ones. Cheap, deep pockets and warm. Earrings Blokes started having one ear pierced in the early Seventies, the both. Girls had anything up to eight around each ear. Well before punk, some Sunderland skins wore small rings in their noses. [...] Falmers A make of baggie jeans, popular with smoothies. Feathercut Girl's hairstyle, originally a lot longer and a lot more subtle than some of the girls you see today with Friar Tuck type cuts. Originally the top was cropped, but not shaved, and so longer. Often the fringes are bleached a different colour to the top too. Causes split ends, particularly if you use the good old steel comb. Harry Fenton Well-known tailor inthe Sixties who made a decent button down shirt. Again tartan a specialty. Fishnet stockings What every skinhead bloke's dreams are made of. Other tights and stockings worn, including patterned ones, but obviously not as popular or as sexy. Ankle socks, usually white, are worn over them with shoes. Flat Cap A must for every skinhead whippet owner and Andy Capp fan. Flight of Flying Jacket Also called flighty, it must be the most popular jacket on sale today. Olive green tops the colour chart, although black ones are most popular with white power skins ironically enough. Other colours include air force blue. Although supposedly original USAF MA1 issue flying jackets, that's not really the case because they have epaulets on the shoulders. Still, what everyone calls an original with a metal zip, decent zip pocket on top of left sleeve, inside pockets, and decent elastic cuffs and collar, are far superior than some of the trash sold by dodgy market stals and shops. Smarter left plain, but often covered in scooter patches, or decorated with other badges and sew-ons. [...] Gloves It used to be pretty fashionable to wear fingerless gloves. Apart from that, the nearest the skinhead cult gets to them is the boxing ring. Greens Army trousers made of green durable material. Cheap and hard wearing. Handkerchiefs Nice touch to finish off a suit jacket or crombie breast pocket. Silk is best. Folded in a variety of ways and held in place by a pocket stud, which often boasts a football team crest. Harrington Lightweight jacket, named after Rodney Harrington, a character on TV's Peyton Place, who was always wearing them. Zip up front, button up collar. It has always been available in various colours (black, red and fawn are most popular), with a tartan lining as standard, but as with most things the quality of them today isn't a patch on the ones being sold in '69. Also available for a short time in tonic and Prince Of Wales pattern. Suedes loved them, but by the mid-Seventies they were High Street fashion. Identity Bracelets Popular item jewellry duing the original skinhead period, but worn by everyone really. Jaytex A make of shirt, noted for its superb checked button downs. Laces The colour of boot laces causes more arguments than a blind referee. The problem is that different colours mean different things in different areas. White might be NF in one town and anarchy in the next. In Montreal, yellow's meant to mean cop killer. What makes it worse is that there is always some know-all who claims to know the lot. Not exactly Earth-shattering stuff. Lambswool Jumpers Very smart and very comfortable. [...] Lee Make of jeans, especially popular in the north before Levi's became widely available. Just as good too. Levi's Red tag 501 jeans and jacket are a must for a skinhead. Button flies are in vogue at the moment, but some still prefer zips [...]. Red tag 505s have zips as standard. Orange tab jeans are frowned upon in some circles, but God knows why. Jeans were always baggier in the original days, with skin tight ones appearing in punk. Loafers Plain slip-on shoe usually with a fringed strip across the tongue and with a couple of small toggles tied like little laces. Usually one of the toggles falls off thought. Usual shoe colours, but black most popular thanks to 2Tone. If you're after a brand name check out Frank Wright. Penny loafers were so-called because girls often attached an old penny piece to their shoes. Lonsdale Manufacturers of boxing equipment. Their range of vest and sweatshirts became popular with mods and skins because of the Lonsdale shop just off Carnaby Street as much as for the love of the noble art. Mac Smart raincoat, a throwback to the Mod days. More a suede thing, and never really popular. Now the preserve of dirty old men. Doc Martens Also called docs and DMs, the most famous make of shoe and boot thanks to its "air wair" soles invented by the good Austrian doctor. Very comfortable, hence their popularity. They are available in 8, 10, 12, 14 and even 20 holes (count the eyelets up just one side of the boot) and most sizes, including small kids. 8 - 12 holes are most popular, although boneheads prefer them to touch their knee caps. Black and cherry red as standard and steel toe caps are available too. [...] Mini-skirts [...] Demin (often made from an old pair of 501s), dogstooth, Prince Of Wales, plain, tonic, you name it. Very smart with matching jacket, shirt and stockings. Mohair Expensive material made from Angoran wool. Perfect for suits if you can pick up the bill. Monkey Boots Ankle boots with the word 'monkey' written on the sole's tred. Popular with kids and girls because they are widely available in small sizes. Oxfords Usually plain leather show with square toe Arnold Palmer Make of shirt. Loud checks in unusual combinations, but not all buttondowns. Permament Press Make of shirt. Excellent button downs for girls. Also made trousers that never needed to see an iron. Fred Perry Range of tennis wear bearing the name of Britain's greatest ever tennisd player. The short-sleeved shirt were popular with mods in the Sixties, and are now standard skinhead issue. Originally four button and then three, they now usually only two button affairs and made from lighter material. Colour schemes were ones pretty tame, but very smart thanks to the piping on the collar and sleeves. Now available in 52 hideous shades in a sad attempt to compete with Benetton. [...] Other lines bearing the famous laurel wreath logo like cardigans, jumpers and Harrington style jackets are popular too. Polish Proper little spit and polish merchants are skinheads. [...] Certainly if you take pride in how you look you can't go out without a shine on your boots or shows, even if they are then trampled into the ground at gigs. Pork Pie Hat Narrow brimmed trilby hat borrowed from the rude boy look. Sometimes called a blue beat hat or stingy brim too. Any colour will do, but black is most popular. [...] Royals Faith Royal were the company wo pioneered the brogue style, hence the shoe is often named after it. Scarf A must for the winter. [...] Football ones are definitely most popular, with Gillingham F.C. ones being most prized. Also paisley patterns. Shaver An electric shaver, also called barber's clippers, are widely available and pay for themselves after a dozen of haircuts. Wahl is the top brand and comes complete with plastic clip-on settings so you can have a number one, two, three or four at the flick of a wrist. Keep well-oiled for a lifetime of service Sheepskin Coat worn by wide boys and football managers the world over, not to mention thousands of skins. Expensive, but worth every penny. Plus they always turn up in second-hand shops. The ones that cover your bum are most popular. Colours to choose from include fawn and dark brown. Ben Sherman Most popular make of skinhead shirt available, not least because it's the easiest to get a hold of. Ben Sherman was a Canadian who started selling his own brand of American style shirts in the early Sixties. They soon became fashionable with mods, but it was skinheads who really put the bloke on the map. The button down collar includes a button at the back, plus there's a loop for hanging the shirt on the back together with a pleat. Those features along with a left breat pocket are now trademarks of skinhead style. The earliest short-sleeved ones had two buttons and a V-shape cut out of the sleeve, then just two buttions and now just the one. Often called Bennies, and available in plain, checked and striped. Shirts American style button down shirts easily the most popular. Always worn with top button undone and long sleeved rolled up once or twice. Freds usually worn with all buttons up. Skull Caps Woollen hats to keep your head warm. [...] Socks Plain white sports socks are universally popular. Red is a long way behind in second place. Sta-Prest Trousers that never needed ironed, and very smart too. Made by a number of companies, but none could touch Levi's whose white ones were stunning compared to other brands. Ever-prest were another good make. Colours include white, burgungy, black, ice blue and fawn. Steelies Steel toe-capped boots were very popular because of their aggro potential. One kick in the balls and few would come back for more. But once they were classed as an offensive weapon, other types moved in on the boot territory. Style The stuff that oozes out of a well-dressed skinhead. Suits Three and four buttons, narrow lapel, and either a middle or back vent or two side vents (up to 18" long) are standard features of skin suits. Ticket pockets are another nice touch. Competition for the best suit often saw extra ticket pockets being added, so you ended up with two pockets on one side and one on the other, and then three on one side and two on the other and so it went on. Buttons on the sleeve were another measure of style, with three being a bare minimum and some racing up to the elbow! The bottom jacket button is usually left undone and the trousers short enough to see the top of you shoe and some sock. Originally plain mohair or the cheaper Trevira, then dogstooth followed by Prince Of Wales checks and tonics. Summer colours tended to be petrol blue, green and navy blue, while black and brown came in during the winter. Smoothies went for double-breasted suits in similar materials. Skinhead girls originally wore they suit jackets at three quarter length. T-Shirt Worn by kids since the Fifties, and skinheads are no exception. After all, not everyone can afford umpteen Bens. Band logos, footie teams, Unions Jacks and the like are all popular. Tank Top Sleeveless jumper popular in the early Seventies. Usually patterned, sometimes in really bad taste. Braces were sometimes worn over them. Tattoos Loads of skinhead have tattoos. Football teams, bands, lovers, countries, firms, all get a look in alongside the odd swallow. A lot of London skins had a star in the centre of their left palm at one time, and another popular one is four dots in a square pattern between your finger and thumb for those who have done time. [...] Tonic Two tone material that changes colour in the light. Very smart suit material. Trevira Make of cloth similar to mohair, but less expensive. Again, popular for making suits. Trim Fit Brutus shirt, especially popular with lasses. No use for beer bellies. Umbrella Suedehead accessory, often with sharpened tip for aggro. Union Shirt Collarless shirt, also called a granddad shirt. Harks back to the days when collars were detachable and weren't worn for hard manual work. Usually available in plain or stripedd, with left breast pocket. Windcheater Lightweight smock, rather like a kagoule. Originally very popular, but rarely seen these days. Meant to be shower proof and warm, but the rain and wind went straight through them. Wrangler Another popular make of jeans and jackets. Northern skins and that. You are the most important part of the skinhead cult. Take pride in the way you look and you won't go far wrong. <mailto:[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected]> <http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/carmelita/238/main.htm> <http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/carmelita/238/main.htm>