Dressing like a skinhead?

[jake snake]

....................

[evisu 2000]

just dress like a wigger until your hair grows back out and you'll be fine.

[polishmike]

In no way it is bad taste. I looked like a skinhead for few years and girls always loved it. Besides, skinheads have great style and always look well put together. As long as you're not racist I don't see a problem. I still have 3 pairs of docs that I wear sometimes and few Fred Perrys. If it wouldn't be for my job I would still shave my head. I still like the clean look and well fitting outfits.

[Servo2000]

The skinhead look is always good in my book.

As long as you're not racist I don't see a problem.

I don't see that this is relevant, personally. Racists can dress however they want, and are always a problem. A racist skinhead is no worse than any other racist, in my opinion.

I saw a great photography book documenting skinhead styles / culture.

[polishmike]

I just have a problem with racists. That's all

[HEWSINATOR]

After I took a Sociology class when there was a debate on whether or not all Skins were racist, I did some reading. Most skins do not seem to be racists, and the evolution of thier style is interesting too (from Mods). Still though, in most people, there will be this connotation and may be something you want to avoid. If you do not care, don't, but to think most people will not make this connection is ignorant.

Can read a bunch about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinhead

[DJ2xTech]

Random observation on racism...whenever you have a person saying Black Power...hey its ok. White Power? Nah its super racist.

Anyway...its just clothing. As long as you don't think and act like a racist, it's not really a problem

[Crillz]

Skinhead racism also depends on your geography... rural mid-America? Racist. Big cities/rural English areas where the movement originated? Not so much.

[sexasomniac]

are your jeans cuffed and are you wearing suspenders with that fred perry? haha, just kidding.

[jake snake]

.....................

[Icarus]

Stay away from milspec and not only will you look a proper skin, you won't look a miltant racist. Skins ('77 skins, that is) were the best dressed subculture ever. Period.

[jasonm]

aint nothing wrong with bein skin.

racist skins are from like the deep south or like eastern europe and dont know what being a skin is actually about, let alone how to dress.

[mlproject]

Stay away from milspec and not only will you look a proper skin, you won't look a miltant racist. Skins ('77 skins, that is) were the best dressed subculture ever. Period.

I'm going to have to say the skins of the late 60s that originated out of the Jamaican migration had it down. Spirit of '69. I've always loved the look and when its done right, it looks good.

Skinhead style at the time was high fashion on top of everyday working class elements like the boots and haircuts. It was originally a youth movement built on unity and rebellion around the 1st wave ska and reggae explosion in England. It wasn't until the mid-late 70s when the national front and football casuals took on the skinhead look and put a bad taste in the public's mouth.

Larger cities will have a highly diverse skinhead crowd, while my experience growing up in the midwest had very few traditional skins and a lot of reculsive nazis (aka still lived with their mom) with internet muscles. There are a ton of multiracial bands and bands from all over the world.

Read Spirit of '69, any of the Richard Allen novels, Skins, Skinhead (photo book), Among the Thugs etc. Spirit of '69 is called the 'skinhead bible,' but its really just a fashion manual and leaves out most of the rest. If you look around, you'll see that it was definitely one of the most influential style movements alongside punk. Think: suits, dr martens, 2tone, fred perry, tight cropped jeans, ben sherman, donkey jackets, scarves, crombies, harringtons, flights, etc.

[jake snake]

.....................

[mlproject]

don't sweat it. everything you described doesn't mean racist. a black fred perry doesn't mean racist.

if you're wearing it well, itll look good. if you're wearing 20 eyes with baggy jeans, a wifebeater, 2" thick suspenders and a bunch of milspec, you'll look like a good old boy. do it sharp and don't worry about it.

[poly800rock]

I'm going to have to say the skins of the late 60s that originated out of the Jamaican migration had it down. Spirit of '69. I've always loved the look and when its done right, it looks good.

Skinhead style at the time was high fashion on top of everyday working class elements like the boots and haircuts. It was originally a youth movement built on unity and rebellion around the 1st wave ska and reggae explosion in England. It wasn't until the mid-late 70s when the national front and football casuals took on the skinhead look and put a bad taste in the public's mouth.

Larger cities will have a highly diverse skinhead crowd, while my experience growing up in the midwest had very few traditional skins and a lot of reculsive nazis (aka still lived with their mom) with internet muscles. There are a ton of multiracial bands and bands from all over the world.

Read Spirit of '69, any of the Richard Allen novels, Skins, Skinhead (photo book), Among the Thugs etc. Spirit of '69 is called the 'skinhead bible,' but its really just a fashion manual and leaves out most of the rest. If you look around, you'll see that it was definitely one of the most influential style movements alongside punk. Think: suits, dr martens, 2tone, fred perry, tight cropped jeans, ben sherman, donkey jackets, scarves, crombies, harringtons, flights, etc.

thanks for reminding me about the name of that book, i haven't seen it or read it in like 10 years now. such a great fucking book (at the time at least, not sure how it holds up) but you'll def understand that UK skinheads don't/didn't have the same connotations that American skins were pigeonholed into. The real question about your look is........................

when are you planning on buying a BLITZ shirt?

[herpsky]

when i wear fred perry polos, i have a couple of friends who tell me that i look like a skin (even though im asian...)

what is the connection between skins and fred perry?

[poly800rock]

when i wear fred perry polos, i have a couple of friends who tell me that i look like a skin (even though im asian...)

what is the connection between skins and fred perry?

that's honestly all i think about when i see people with fred perry, what their head would look like shaved and they had red dr. marten 10 eyelet steel toed boots with white laces...

[mlproject]

the skinhead staple brands have always been levi's, ben sherman and fred perry. other brands like merc and lonsdale chimed in later on and there has been a lot of football casual influence with henry lloyd and stone island, but absolutely not the point where it gets chavvy with fake burberry on top.

i'm trying to find a copy of spirit of '69, but ST publishing apparently went under and all those books have gone through the cieling. its a pretty solid volume, but there really isn't a difinitive history out there. the skinhead FAQ that might be floating aroudn was a better read ... something like 200 printed computer pages in word. somehow i found a copy of boss sounds for $10. lucked out on that one.

i'm way into subcultures from a sociology standpoint, especially the misunderstood ones.

i already have my blitz shirt!

[polishmike]

I still have The Business shirt that Micky Fitz threw into the crowd after the show at the Wetlands.

[isoform]

just saying...

racist skins are idiots.

1. their fashion is mostly derived from a huge dose of jamaican-imported (read: black) rude boy fashion sense [as mlproject pointed out] that came into the british working class when jamaicans in large numbers started immigrating to the UK.

2. racist punk, rock or--lmao--racist rap music, again, is derived from another huge dose of black culture.

so if these assholes want racial and cultural purity it'd make some sense to quit ripping off black folks.

anyway, i quite like the skinhead, mod, and rudeboy look, people who know or aren't just informed or swallow everything they see on tv won't automatically associate skinhead-fashion with neonazis.

[englandmj7]

I love football hooligan & skinhead style, but not the 'causes' they support by any means.

Don't forget MA-1 jackets.........skinheads love those shits.

[poly800rock]

just saying...

racist skins are idiots.

1. their fashion is mostly derived from a huge dose of jamaican-imported (read: black) rude boy fashion sense [as mlproject pointed out] that came into the british working class when jamaicans in large numbers started immigrating to the UK.

2. racist punk, rock or--lmao--

racist rap music

, again, is derived from another huge dose of black culture.

so if these assholes want racial and cultural purity it'd make some sense to quit ripping off black folks.

anyway, i quite like the skinhead, mod, and rudeboy look, people who know or aren't just informed or swallow everything they see on tv won't automatically associate skinhead-fashion with neonazis.

please give me a link to racist rap, i need to hear this shit to believe it.

[mlproject]

skinheads were on the terraces but faded out toward the mid 70s. styles went more toward lacoste, fila and adidas. you can thank hooligans for being rabid for sneakers. skinhead wasn't so much a punk thing until the later 70s, then solidified when oi came around in early 80s.

good link on the family tree. leaves out sharps, but they're usually just as violent and dimwitted as nazis anymore.

[dino might]

S kin

H eads

A gainst

R acial

P rejudice

[backinthetrees]

After I took a Sociology class when there was a debate on whether or not all Skins were racist, I did some reading. Most skins do not seem to be racists, and the evolution of thier style is interesting too (from Mods). Still though, in most people, there will be this connotation and may be something you want to avoid. If you do not care, don't, but to think most people will not make this connection is ignorant.

Can read a bunch about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinhead

adhere to the shoelace code??

coming from a punk.

FUCK SKINHEADS.

hah. them local skins always looking to stir shit at gigs (in the past)

with the advent of emo, however, punk has since mellowed out alot.

fuck that tho.

i hate it how everything has evolved into a style instead of remaining as a culture.

did anyone of you watch "pariah"?

SLC punk! was my movie. also, the decline of the western civilization

[Pandemonium]

if you're really going to go through this path, i say let all the shit come to you.

your friends will always look at you as who you are, and not by the way you look.

[Guest StuckOnStupid]

when i wear fred perry polos, i have a couple of friends who tell me that i look like a skin (even though im asian...)

what is the connection between skins and fred perry?

a friend of mine has been in Poland for the past couple of years teaching. He almost got into it one evening with some gentlemen who didn't take kindly to him wearing Fred Perry. It was a racialist thing.

Upon hearing this, I responded in kind by kicking a Polish kid wearing Fubu into a coma.

[mike lowrey]

a lot has been said already, but my initial thought is that its all up to where you are/live.

here, if I see someone in tight jeans, combat boots and a MA-1 its pretty safe to say hes a neo nazi scumbag. thats just because there are no 'real' or 'traditional' skins here. not that there would be a lot of neo-nazis either, but for the small population thats pretty much their dress code. in a couple of smaller cities there are more of these guys, they go around doing small crimes and harassing foreigners. just read in the paper a while ago that some 'leader' of theirs got popped.

so anyways because of what those clothes mean to me personally, I have a lot of dislike towards the style. for example having only seen MA-1 jackets in that context, yes, I'm somewhat prejudiced towards someone who wears one. I do recognize the difference though and know that in other places this style doesn't necessarily mean anything.

[kozsie]