amerifag here. i've been getting a lot into the british "football casual" style as of recently. before this i've had a good amount of designer sportswear that i wear when i'm out and about at night, but being an anglophile, when i've learned about this bizarre subculture i was naturally intrigued.
so for those who don't know, "casuals" are basically a "subculture" or clique of some sorts. it started in the late 80s when young british men would follow their favorite teams around europe to watch the matches. during their travels they've come across a few really nice tracksuits from brands they have never heard of (lacoste, sergio tacchini, fila), and adidas sneakers or "trainers", so they decided to steal this clothing and come back to the uk with it. this eventually evolved into different "firms" trying to dress nicer than the other firms that they were about to fight before and after the matches. to these young men, everything in their life was football, designer clothing, and fighting with members from other firms.
in the 80s and 90s the casuals adopted many new brands into their wardrobe, brands we would only associate with rich snobs and eurotrash, such as stone island, armani, dolce & gabbana, burberry, moncler. basically any super high end fashion brand you can think of, the casuals stole from the stores and wore them to football matches.
not being from the uk, my knowledge is rather limited, but from what i've learned on the internet and blogs today the typical style of dress for a casual is a cp company or stone island shell jacket, a pair of jeans (typically from levi's, but can be from any brand really), adidas original or spezial sneakers, and in the colder months, a burberry or aquascutum scarf. as someone who hates formalwear yet loves fashion, this look is very appealing to me, despite me seldom ever watching soccer matches. i have a large collection of adidas originals low tops with many different colorways to match the other clothes i wear. cont'd
i've also stocked up on tipped polo shirts from brands such as lacoste, armani, versace, vivienne westwood, kenzo, lyle & scott etc. (the last 3 being rather difficult to find in the US, lyle & scott having to depend solely on online shipping from british clothing sites like harvey nichols or asos). i have at least 50 pairs of armani jeans from all the armani sublabels, because i like the metal eagle badge on the back right pocket and i am not a big fan of levi's. and since they've opened a stone island store in new york where i live, i've stocked up on tons of hoodies, sweaters, jackets and other articles of clothing from the store. stone island has gotten a following here in the us since the rapper drake started wearing it in his "fake british" phase, but i've known this brand for years, at least since the late 2000's.
i don't cover my face with a scarf or wear the cp goggles jacket like the picture because i am not attending matches and fighting other fans. i would be too much of a pussy to ever be an actual member of a firm in the uk. i just really love the style. it's very laidback yet smart looking
in short. i would like your input in all this, whether you think this is a nice look or stupid.
Eli Long
> it started in the late 80s
my mistake. its a typo. i mean't late 70's
Caleb Morris
Well I mean all I can say its quite a specific look and you seem v dedicated to it, but dont you think you might look out of place if you live in the US? I mean, what is the image you are projecting dressing like that? In any case this kind of look was and I think still is v promoted by gosha, so you probably would get many inspo from that. Its an interesting idea for sure
Easton Lopez
I don't think I'd really stand out since here in New York every other person is foreign. Right now in the summer I would typically wear a polo shirt, jeans and adidas sneakers (I am wearing that right now), so if anything I think the look is, if anything, only subtly different from American dress.
Not necessarily trying to convey a message either, besides that I don't follow today's stupid streetwear trends and really just like to do my own thing. I've always loved adidas. I don't have a single Jordan and only 1 Nike Air Force from the 2000s. I just like this I guess because I look at least slightly different (nicer) than the trendwhores I see a lot here. When I go to the opening ceremony store a lot of the pieces disappoint me as to where fashion is heading
Parker Cooper
I don't want to rag on streetwear fans but honestly the people I see over here and on the internet associated with it (hip hop stars, Justin Bieber, the kardashians etc) and the culture in general has left a bad taste in my mouth
Isaac Ward
Actually, while the brands seem exotic, as we don't see a whole lot of stone island in the US, the look as a whole is pretty normal. The whole football club fans buying designer and fighting really reminds me of the mods, which would reportedly buy designer clothes on layaway and fight each other outside pubs in the 60s. Don't know how much truth that is about the mods though
Andrew Cox
Nobody will get it. I tried about 6 years ago. But I still like the look and only wear Adidas sneakers I got some really cool windbreakers at Bass Pro Shop for like 15 bucks each that fit the aesthetic very well
Eli Lee
Well I would like just to point out that at the moment, football fashion is quite an influence in todays streetwear, so either by coincidence, or indirect influence, you are doing that as well. This shouldnt disencourage you, because its more of a thing in british and european streetwear than it is on the US I would say more like 80s skinheads than mods tbqh
Adam Cooper
shut up you pathetic queg
fuck me you must look such a twat walking around giving it the big I AM just because you pretend to like a sport that isn't even big in your country, I suppose you're such a bog standard drip in some next flyover state that you'll cling onto anything that makes you stand out in the queue for panera bread.
The fact you've gone as far to "support" a bottom of the league championship team rather than the ones people in America actually know such as Arsenal, Man U or Man City just goes so show how much you're reaching for relevance through irony
couple this with the ironic posts such as "AR ARRYS GONNA WIN THE LEEG" trying to pretend like you're some feverish English fan despite you being 19th just goes to show what a pathetic little specimen you are
ooh your middle finger's up is it? proper ard you mate, bet you'd defend your team to the bitter end. On the front line with the firm outside your local Taco Bell are you? jog on you little runt, you're fucking nothing mate, a vague pastiche to British culture which you can emulate poorly, but will never - EVER - be accepted within
fuck off
Jayden Lee
mate, you're not from the UK and you're going to look like a muppet, you're emulating a culture you're so far detached from you couldn't even begin to immerse yourself in it, you'll just be performing a vague pastiche
literally like Elijah Wood in Green Street
Blake Myers
> i have at least 50 pairs of armani jeans from all the armani sublabels
hahahahahahahah mate who told you that hooligans wear Armani? you've been taken for a ride here
Wyatt Butler
There are books written by mods that talk about that stuff. Check vice's archive for interviews and pics, cuz I've seen them there before. You had to get mail-order Italian suits cut ultra trim (so you had to be skelly mode) to get into some of the early London clubs. There was a lot of drugs and drinking, so I'm sure it had violence, but the dress code to get into clubs was pretty pricey.
Benjamin Carter
So you're just going to pick on the poor guy just because he likes a certain style of dress? I think this style is really nice and wished more American men dressed this way. He never said he was a casual or a soccer (football) fan. He just said he likes the style. As user also said, terrace fashion is making a huge impact on streetwear and men's fashion as a whole, so there is nothing wrong with emulating the casual style.
In fact, you should be flattered that someone actually admires your shitty britbong culture. I bet you'd never insult anyone to their face because you're afraid they'd snap your twink 5 foot ass in half. Suck on a tea bag you browntoothed cockney chimney sweeper
Bought my dad two Adidas california tees for father day from them. Good site.
Nathan Perry
>hahahahahahahah mate who told you that hooligans wear Armani?
Who told you they don't?
Isaiah Bell
Dude you're so weird for digging up all this history on what is essentially terrorwave. Are you some kind of englandaboo?
Jackson Morales
Pretty green
William Russell
Don't give away good brands reeeeee
Julian Thomas
its normie tier, 15 year olds wear it
Tyler Robinson
Not in America
Hunter Parker
Get fred perry
Evan Watson
no one likes this kind of people here, they're literally our equivalent of hood/ghetto or trailer trash. bum off benefits, steal shit and commit violent crimes. why would you try and imitate literal scum?
Benjamin Mitchell
DRAIN GANG
Luke Roberts
:thinking:
Mason Foster
great post
Jose White
So you want to look like a chav?
Asher Johnson
...
Isaiah Bennett
this user may be an asshole, but I have to say he's obviously right.
Just wearing good 501s and a pair of Adidas in some weird color combo would look okay, but beyond that it's just full-blown dress-up make-believe pretend-you're-a-soccer-fan. It's lame enough just to see Americans appropriating English mod and skinhead stuff all over the fucking place in this country, but at least they dress well, bullshit poseurs though they are. Dressing in a fucking hooligan's casual uniform is like five steps beyond that in terms of unbridled mongoloidism. It's no different than Squint Eastwood in Times Square or that weeaboo riding a bus dressed like a fucking farmhand from the Tokugawa Shogunate in feudal Japan as businessmen are coming home from work. What's the difference, really?
Carson Ortiz
>no mention of fred perry, pretty green, or napapijri
the rest of the brands you listed are basically spot on though, i dont identify with the casual subculture but i have a few mates that do and they're always dressed in the brands you mentioned, especially stone island and cp company.
also i dont know why you're getting so much shit in this thread honestly, just dress how you want
Evan Nguyen
Feels so weird seeing someone fetishise a culture I'm part of, is this how Japanese people feel about weabs?
You seem to know your shit about the history of the movement but it's all meaningless if you don't have that connection to a team. The whole reason casuals got into Stone Island and their technical garments was to keep oneself warm and dry while you go and see your team play at some shithole up north.
Get yourself a plane ticket over here and follow a shit football team for a season home and away and you're in
Jayden Brown
> follow a shit team for a year Stevenage fan here, been following them for like six years, holy shit is it depressing to support a team under threat of relegation constantly
Anthony Butler
This is honestly so weird, fan of some meh team down the south of england here, my dad and granddad are/were also part of the footy scene. I've grown up around it. You've got it all wrong. There are two main types of casuals. Lads who live/breath it and dressers who are mad into the clothes.
If you want a more modern and honest representation of the clothes follow the brands casual connoisseur and 80scasuals on instagram and the guys that run them and their associates. I'm friends with a few. There are loads of brands commonly worn now that aren't in those awful books and what not.
Nobody wears Lyle and Scott besides muppets that go and they get laughed at. For polo's hugo boss, lacoste, stone island.
Jeans now are normally stone island or edwin.
Jackets normally are stone island, cp company, Nanamica, engineered garments, berghaus trangos, peter storm cagoules, lacoste izod half zips.
Footwear: any 70's/80's/90's retro runners. Adidas island/city series, stan smiths. Nike omega flames and internationalists. Diadora borg elites. New balance sometimes normally the made in uk 577's.
A must is an aquascutum or burberry scarf.
There are loads of exceptions but you kinda have to be an established casual to make them work as its all about buying designer gear and looking as good as possible with references to british culture. Without that extensive knowledge or experience in the culture you'll never quite get it and will look stupid. Trainers and jacket I could go on for days the variety in those two departments is ridiculous. Check out English menswear boutiques such as John Anthony, End, Oi Polloi and others. For sportswear check out all of Nick Loves films and 80scasualclassics.
Jonathan Hughes
btw that picture you posted is a graphic by casual connoisseur and the two guys on either side are Dan and his twin brother that run it. I know a guy who features in a lot of their graphics.
