Casual Now, Casual Then- I have mentioned on various sites and had endless chats that highlights
everyone has their own set of memories of
life as a casual an "
80s casual" and clearly
Nick Loves the Firm is his and a whole load of other Londoners memories of the days at Millwall , West Ham etc. In helping Nick get the gear together we found a spot on pictorial story book called the Pompey boys with loads of photos of casuals home and away, also reading other casual books the Pompey casuals were highlighted as having a completely different dress to London and the North in some peoples eyes possibly behind other areas- the pictures to me were my memories of a casual so Pompey lads as a Mid beds Casual I was bang on your page-
Nick Love / Bex we were not wearing moody
Kappa it was the real deal and we were wearing it with some pride.
As a home counties casual who wore clobber as purely a colourful aspirational one up monied look with my mates, non of us ever going to football or particularly up for a ruck , we were dressers who shopped up in London and hung out at youth clubs, town centres and got in the odd club or village hall disco ! We wore
Farahs,
Lois, Bleach jeans, Diadora and Nike trainers ( no real adidas in our parts) ,
Pringle and Lyle jumpers, Kappa roll necks a few boys had Fila and Tacchini and they new it, I might have seen one local
town guy in an Ellesse polo although new when buying my
Kappa Kagoul at 15 that the Ellesse ski jacket sat in lillywhites, jaw droppingly out of my league, I new how to rob sweets from the corner shop but how did you get an Ellesse ski jacket with fat security tags in your pocket !
Pictured Fila Tracksuit 3 colour zip off sleeve, burgundy and electric blue cords, ois jeans, diadora white blue, white silver suede and leather poncho style coat, benetton jumper, slazenger jumper and me mums blue favourite carpet. If my regular shoppers are anything to go by and the price of clobber times have changed. Most of us could not get enough of the gear 16 year old casuals saturday jobs, YTS schemes. Roll on 2006-2009 reliving one of the best times of our lives like a kid in a sweet shop with money or a credit card or simply organising the priorities, posh meal or tracksuit or 2? I have thought myself a dresser ever since caring about what to wear taking a couple of looks in the mirror adjusting the wedge (
Dom and Bex) then owning a clothes shop and eventually realising you cant be in business to please your own personal tastes as you wont have a business and guess what I was part of a casual elite of 6 in my small town. As for the Mrs will she ever get the male infactuation with a quality Fila or Sergio Track track top if she does your got a rare one !! Send her on the site on the phone to 80scasualclassics and she will choose you the mod range smart knitted polo, gabicci long sleeve polo, v neck jumper and some nice suede clarks style boots she might like the roll neck to be fair it aint a bad look.
Question is will her in doors want the Fila dressing gown in the bedroom !!
Whatever Next !!
From focusing the last 4 years of my life on reliving the casual days and then aiding
Nick Love with the film I must have spoke with a 1,000 old boy casuals across the country and obviously I still have many battles to get brands back up and runnng to please everyone- Cerrutti, Ellesse who knows Armani. I have a good idea of what people want having over 10,000 buyers via
80scasualclassics.
The Terrinda film club event in Bedford 
showed the £100 Fila terrinda to be second to none with our boys and the good news so far is no signs it will be on any Tom Dick-you got to know it to pay it. I never thought I would be wearing a red
Fila Terrinda tracksuit top but cream roll neck / navy polo lois cords / Farahs and Im feeling pretty damn special in my new togs like I need a special occasion- another
80s do in Bedford with a top crowd of casual dressers !
To me its not about wearing purely what I used to wear that gives me the buzz its wearing something new , something I could not afford back then , something I aspired to wear I dont think the feeling has changed.
Im not going to knock someone for stepping out in the same gear day to day when thats there way, but my buzz is knowing I have a new look, new gear can pick and choose and thats exactly what I recall from 84-85 the two years I recall being a casual and starting to become a man, although i think the buzz of new gear back then lastest longer untill I had saved up or you even swapped with your mate ! At 40 years of age eventually like a lot of people its much more fun remembering what it was like being a boy than it is to accept being a man and all that !!
Seeing a casual crew from Redditch 39+ years in full clobber break dancing at our
80s casuals do in Bedford where 100s of casuals got clobbered up just added to a major high that happened on that day - seeing
