In between Christmas and the New Year, I was in a reflective mood and picked up a copy of  ‘The Fashion of Football’ a book I had the idea for in 2004, and on which I collaborated with a long time favourite writer of mine, namely Paolo Hewitt.  In it, I wrote a short piece called ‘The World of Casuals’, my first pubished bit of work.  Bit clunky in places, but after re-reading it, I found funnily enough that it echoed what I have been thinking a lot recently.

So, fourteen years later, after rereading it, please allow an old man his indulgence as I re-print it here, for those who missed it the first time.

‘I was part of the label madness that was the world of the Casuals. Everyone in my immediate circle was. You had to be one. You were either a Casual or you were classed as a State (i.e. in a state, badly dressed)

At its height, we became obsessed with tracking down all the latest designs and labels that hit big time in and around my area of South London. As with all the clothing cults over the years, be they Mod, Skin or Suedehead, there was always one or two kids who set the pace. They’d wear something first and, within a week, we all had it on. Word would go round that a shop on Tanners Hill in Lewisham had cheap Lois jeans – ‘but keep it to yourself, we don’t want everyone sussing it’ and you would bomb down there and when you arrived, there were big queues of the like – minded outside, and you thought you had the inside information!

Nothing stayed a secret for long, there were simply too many punters chasing the same cloth. The big purchase for me at the time was buying a burgundy Lacoste polo shirt at Whitehall Clothiers on the Walworth Road. I remember it costing £35, which was a lot of money to me in 1980, but I had to have it. To not buy it, would have left me on the sidelines with the kids wearing the cheap ‘Le Shark’ copies and you wouldn’t want that.

We used to try and outdo each other in getting the latest ‘in’ gear first. Buying trainers in Europe whilst away on school trips and then wearing them down Millwall and then really enjoying everyone asking where you got them, and you’d reply, ‘Switzerland mate. Can’t get ‘em over here…’

As with all these trends, people move on and I eventually began to favor a more mod look, but at that time, I loved it.

But you know what? In some ways I wished it hadn’t happened. In my opinion, it’s to blame for leaving us with a generation who wear nothing but ‘sportswear’, and what’s more, they wear it badly. If you look out of any top deck bus window going from the West End to Peckham as I do on a daily basis, you look out on a sea of polyester ad nylon going by. Tracksuit bottoms, tracksuit tops, hooded tops, crop trousers, T-shirts all covered in logos of every size.

Then there are the ‘Gloria’s’ in every conceivable colour; all topped off with a baseball cap.

I think I must have slept through a law being passed where it was decreed that if you are between 12 and 25, you can’t got out without a bloody baseball cap on!  There’s the ‘chavs’ in Burberry, Aquascutum, Nike, Adidas etc.…there’s your skater boys being all ironic in their Ed’s Garage retro caps or something super trendy like Bathing Ape and then there’s the more sorted fashion conscious, trotting about in Von Dutch or a snide Louis Vuitton one.

What’s worse is that the art of being an individual has disappeared. Ok, occasionally you see someone on the street, at football or in a club, and they stand out so much, that the image of them stays with you for a long time. One such sighting was a fella I spied in among the Millwall away supporters at Selhurst Park on Boxing Day of last year. He cut though the crowd of baseball caps and tracksuits, coming towards me wearing a three quarter length white mac, Prada shoes and sporting a good haircut. He looked great and it made my heart glad to know that there are people out there who can still stop you in your tracks by looking different.

Sportswear is obviously king now. Nike and the like have won the war for the young pound. The influences have all got mixed up. Football culture with hip-hop, hip-hop with skater wear. To me saturation point has been achieved. It’s totally global from the Europe to the States.

To an old mod like me, they all look…sloppy, baggy, loose, crumpled, disheveled…

I know I sound like an old man, giving it the ‘ I despair of the youth of today’ speech, but I reckon I’m cock on mate.

Last Saturday I was having a quiet pint in a riverside boozer down Rotherhithe and two fellas, not particularly young, walked in. They were covered head to toe in Burberry and Aquascutum.  Caps, shorts, polo shirts even socks. It could have been snide, it could have been kosher, I don’t know and frankly I don’t care. The funny thing is, the two visions in check obviously thought they looked good, tasty even.  I personally thought they looked ridiculous. No style, no class, the clothes wearing them not the other way around. They were settling for the lowest common denominator, thinking ‘everyone has got the same stuff as me on, that’ll do nicely’

Well, it doesn’t and us old Casuals have a lot to answer for…Mark Baxter 2004’

Only one thing to add to that now in 2018.

Does anyone know where I can get some decent jogging bottoms?

The Mumper of SE5