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Original skinhead fashion - 68- 73

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Earl of Ormonde

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited)
Hi,

By 68 the hard mods and gang mods had settled into the orignal skinhead look, this evolved along the way until about 71, when the first Skinhead look really ended with the appearance of much longer hair (smoothies), jumpers, plaid trousers, later flairs, and Norwegians with the lattice tops and square toe. Beetle crushers as we used to call them. A good reference point is Jim Ferguson's Fashion Notebook, the relevant parts of which you can find in Skinhead by Nick Knight. By 73 all remnants of the look that the smoothies had retained had been lost to glam rock and flairs. That said, not much later the NF hijacked the original style for their nazi boneheads. The most radical departures of course being the completley shaven head, that orignal skinheads NEVER had. The use of American military style bomber jackets, much higher jeans, and much higher boots and most horribly simply a t-shirt on top replacing the checked shirts and tennis shirts.

Although the film "16 Years of Alcohol" with Kevin McKidd (Rome series) was made in 2003, it displays the late 60s /early 70s style of the original skinhead very well, in this case in Glasgow. As this photo shows, with the white jeans, the black or red Dr. Martens and the Crombie coats. https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5Qcl1S1M...m/_5Qcl1S1MdQQ/SN6mIZsmrCI/AAAAAAAAMUA/q0xrEkw4ejA/s400/16-years-Main-Photo.jpg
In this scene in the film they emulate the famous underpass running & shouting scene from Clockwork Orange
https://generationfilm.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/a_clockwork_orange.jpg
 
#3 ·
I do remember a time when the original skinhead look had a capacity to shock (in my case, 1969) which was lost in its later incarnations. I also remember a rather strange thing that the skinheads/suedeheads, at least up north, had about umbrellas - sometimes sharpened to spear-like points and used as weapons.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
Centaur said:
I do remember a time when the original skinhead look had a capacity to shock (in my case, 1969) which was lost in its later incarnations. I also remember a rather strange thing that the skinheads/suedeheads, at least up north, had about umbrellas - sometimes sharpened to spear-like points and used as weapons.
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Same down south. Also inherited the sharpened metal comb from the teddy boys. Or in my case from my dad, who told me about it.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Not being a football follower, I really couldn't say when I last saw a skinhead, but the look did leave a certain impression at the time I was at grammar school (early 70s), as one or two of my more distant friends dabbled in it. Crombie coats I remember, 'Sta-press' trousers, red socks and Loake brogues. I don't remember 'plaid' trousers though?
 
#10 ·
Centaur said:
Not being a football follower, I really couldn't say when I last saw a skinhead, but the look did leave a certain impression at the time I was at grammar school (early 70s), as one or two of my more distant friends dabbled in it. Crombie coats I remember, 'Sta-press' trousers, red socks and Loake brogues. I don't remember 'plaid' trousers though?
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Now that is bringing it all back, I used to have the Ice Blue Sta-press trousers with White braces and the Dr Martens and Harrington jacket, thought I was soooo cool but what a sight that must have been. Yes the things we remember and regret all at the same time.
 
#12 ·
For those of you interested in such things the film 'This is England', which is set in 1983, may be of interest. Growing up in England in the early '80's I can confirm that Skins were certainly still around and kicking (sometimes literally) but by that stage there was a real split in music, politics and fashion between the 'Oi'/bonehead and 2Tone varieties.

I remember wearing Fred Perry polo shirts and smart jeans (Wrangler by choice) or sta-press trousers (burgundy were very popular if recollection serves me correctly) and braces. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Doc Marten's boots yet.
 
#13 ·
ourkid said:
I remember wearing Fred Perry polo shirts and smart jeans (Wrangler by choice) or sta-press trousers (burgundy were very popular if recollection serves me correctly) and braces. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Doc Marten's boots yet.
Click to expand...
Now that is bringing it all back, I used to have the Ice Blue Sta-press trousers with White braces and the Dr Martens and Harrington jacket, thought I was soooo cool but what a sight that must have been. Yes the things we remember and regret all at the same time.

See my message from before I had the Doc Marten boots in those days along with the braces... Nice to here others are still out there who can remember the clothes.
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
LOL just checked my Facebook page and a Swedish skinhead mate in my town just sent me a suggestion to join "Skinheads never die we just get older" Sounds like the group for me! ;)

I was going to do a separate thread on the second wave fashions from the 76-77 revival onwards, during which other old sub-cultures also rallied strongly, for example the teds, who had never gone away, but their numbers swelled, helped of course a few years earlier by the rock n roll revivial of bands like Mud and Showaddywaddy; but one point I want to mention here is the Kings Road fights.

As I've mentioned before on this forum, my secondary school was 100 yards from the Kings Road and in the 5th year in 77, I saw it all kick off. The oddest thing that happened was that skinheads suddenly reappeared and started taking sides. The older traditional skins sided with the teds and the newbies (teenagers) sided with the punks. The difference of course was that the newbies retained the NF uniform (bald heads, T-shirts, big boots, bleachers) and made it even more outrageous by adding visible Swastikas, just like the punks, both on their clothing and as tattoos as well as sieg heiling all over the place. The thing was, that unlike the NF very few, if any, of these young new swastika adorned "skinheads" were racists or nazis. Like their compatriots amongst the punks they were just acting out and using nazi imagery to shock the establishment and their (mostly middle class) parents.

Nick Knight comments on this in Skinhead, which many of you have probably read, "The skins who sided with the punks were a new breed, who wished to be seen as more anarchical and more shocking than the punks. The new skins achieved this by reviving the most extreme elements of the old skinhead style and by exaggerating them. Heads were shaved completely or the crop bleached, sometimes with Union Jacks or other symbols dyed into it. Mohicans also gained poularity. Only the boots, jeans and braces were revived, no suits were worn. the Swastika, already adroning many a punk T-shirt, was flaunted in the form of facial tattoos and the public was taunted with Nazi slautes".

"The skins who supported the teds were traditionalists. They were reviving almost exactly what the original skins had been, with their smartness, working class ethics and attitudes. These people regarded the punks as if they were middle class hippies ten years on. (I still do -James ;)) They hated the new plastic skins."
 
Discussion starter · #15 ·
ourkid said:
For those of you interested in such things the film 'This is England', which is set in 1983, may be of interest. Growing up in England in the early '80's I can confirm that Skins were certainly still around and kicking (sometimes literally) but by that stage there was a real split in music, politics and fashion between the 'Oi'/bonehead and 2Tone varieties.

I remember wearing Fred Perry polo shirts and smart jeans (Wrangler by choice) or sta-press trousers (burgundy were very popular if recollection serves me correctly) and braces. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Doc Marten's boots yet.
Click to expand...
Indeed. see my new post. The skins of the 80s were three different breeds. Many were basically punks dressed partially as skins. Others were NF and BM boneheads with not a suit, a Ben Sherman of a pair of loafers between them, listening to skrewdriver and other racist bands, not that there were many such bands. And then there were those who had revived the original style and listening to 2 tone and ska. And in many cases like the new Mods also listening to soul.

BTW, I mentioned Dr. Marten's in my opening post. Did you read it? ;)
 
Discussion starter · #16 ·
Also, could our Australian members, if they were there at the time, tell us a bit about the fashions of the Sharpies of the 60s and 70s (Not to be confused with the SHARP skins that started in the US in the late 80s).

The gang in Romper Stomper, from what I can remember were basically racist Australian skinheads rather than Sharpies. Or have I got that wrong?
 
#17 ·
Statement of the obvious, but I don't think class has been mentioned - the whole skinhead look was defiantly working class, almost a reaction against soft, complacent middle class suburban ways and possibly some sort of expression of anger at the undermining by various influences of the traditional working class way of life - factory closures, social mobility and (whisper it) immigration. I remember a lot of overt working class racism at that time, and the emergence of one or two extreme right movements, whose supporters certainly shared the skinhead look - not that they should all be tarred with that particular brush. In fact one or two skins I knew (we were in the same air cadet squadron) definitely, and slightly bizarrely to my mind, had hippyish, pacifist vegan tendencies, not quite the stereotypical aggro-boy image.

It was never a look that went down well in middle class families -bankers, lawyers, doctors and accountants, but no doubt some in today's professions may have been skinheads in their youth.
 
#18 ·
Centaur said:
It was never a look that went down well in middle class families -bankers, lawyers, doctors and accountants, but no doubt some in today's professions may have been skinheads in their youth.
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Yes I was one of those guys...A mis-spent youth. I am now in a professional role but still think back to the old days and laugh at times. My hair is thinning itself these days so the skinhead look is coming back natuarally Ha HA... and I still do like the braces look so that must be where it originated for me, I did wonder why I liked the look of braces and still feel the wish to wear them, must be a deep rooted thing!
 
#19 ·
Edinburgh Lad said:
the skinhead look is coming back natuarally Ha HA... and I still do like the braces look so that must be where it originated for me, I did wonder why I liked the look of braces and still feel the wish to wear them, must be a deep rooted thing!
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I like braces too, and DMs (I have worn them for gardening mostly, for years, but find they are now attracting nostalgic interest from people of a certain age).
I have to say that today's youth generally look very bland compared to when I were a lad - one or two goth types but most are just depressingly anonymous, as though they have stepped out of Prixmark's window.
 
#20 ·
Centaur said:
I like braces too, and DMs (I have worn them for gardening mostly, for years, but find they are now attracting nostalgic interest from people of a certain age).
I have to say that today's youth generally look very bland compared to when I were a lad - one or two goth types but most are just depressingly anonymous, as though they have stepped out of Prixmark's window.
Click to expand...
What is Prixmarks Window ?
 
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