the dressing,casual era in south wales started 1981 as city fans from parts
of s wales like ely and neath had second teams like liverpool,tottenham,man
u.the scousers arguably started the football fashion thing especially the now
old hat european labels such as lacoste and armani but from the early
european cup trips pilfering fila,ellesse and tacchini tracksuits started the
"casual"label .it of course coincided with the violence and you could tell
lads apart in them days more so than today.lads who were right in amonst it
then tell me something was coming in and out of fashion every month in the
early days.
the trainers thing was huge then as obsessed lads would travel
abroad just to get the latest adidas.one city lad from ely used to fly to one
shop in dublin regularly to get exclusive trimm trab,forest hills and
muncheon.cardiff fans had blackwood to thank.a shop called bolwells for years
stocked adi dasslers finest.the only place in wales that did.i love listening
to old stories like a liverpool mate of mine got attacked my some man u at
euston 83 after a league cup final.they tried to get his armani jeans off him
but failed!
when i first started in 87 at 15 the soul crew had the older lads
and the u5s.the young uns but i remember how well dressed they were.woodies
was the bollocks for a 15yr old.at the time wedge haircuts with a number one
or two back and sides,the clobber ranged from part two,chipie(in 87 it was
really expensive),c17 jeans(also with patches),fiorruci and classic nouveau.a
lot of the sc though were big into ralph lauren and emporio armani.87 we had
bristol city away and i travelled with the boys for the first time.loads of
16 and 17 yr olds wearing 150quid jumpers and 150 pound timberland boots.they
certainly looked the part.i had to get into it and paying 33 notes for my
first ralph lauren polo was the biz.the first woodies bag stayed with me for
months!stone island was being sold in woodies 88.
our opening day game away at
tranmere i recall si jeans 2 of the lads bought in the sale but it never
really kicked off until 1990 just after everything went pear-shaped fashion
wise due to mad-chester scene and the stone roses.300 cardiff attack a pub
full of swansea on tudor rd -easter 1990 led by a lad with pony tail,poncho
,bell bottoms and purple kickers(ahem!)anyhoo trips soon after to london
reallised stone island was the new kid in town.a handful of cardiff were into
straight away-the buzz soon caught on.also cp company and boneville,navy
arctic were popular with the lads who knew the score.a couple of millwall
friends put us intouch with a store in russell sq that had racks of si for 50
notes a coat(honestly)my favourite at the time was a camoflague ice jacket
from quincy in london.it did sweep the nations terraces around 93 and has
ever since.it got so popular that one bnp meeting which chelsea,millwall and
pompey turned up the ncis put two and two together and made 123 by coming to
the conclusion stone island represented football hooligan-racist behavior and
the badge had a symbolic meaning(!)i could tell you hundreds of stories
similar like the time plymouth football intelligence went to the local
designer store and questioned the owners in connection with selling stone
island(FACT).it has in many ways spoilt the terrace fashion thing has it in
the whole has stagnated but over the last couple of seasons new clobber like
prada red stripe,mandarina duck and ymc have turned up.lots of cardiff like
to be original but sometimes it seems si,burberrys ,aquascutum and lacoste
have sponsership deals at ninian park.it is good to see so many young lads
interested as much in the gear as the rowing
