Casual (subculture)

The casual subculture is a subset of football culture that is characterised by the wearing of expensive designer clothing and hooliganism. Many participants dislike the term 'casuals', preferring the term ‘dresser’, with regional variations including Perry boys, trendies, and scallies.

The subculture emerged in the United Kingdom during the late 1970s, as a significant number of young men attending football matches began wearing clothing produced by designer sportswear brands, including Burberry, Fred Perry, Sergio Tacchini, Lacoste, Fila, Lyle & Scott, and Ellesse. In the 1980s, casuals also began to wear other Italian brands including Stone Island and C.P. Company.

Casuals have been portrayed in films and television programmes such as ID, The Firm, The Football Factory, and Green Street. The documentary Casuals: The Story of the Legendary Terrace Fashion featuring Pat Nevin, Peter Hooton and Gary Bushell amongst others is about the fashion that started in the late 70s and into the 1980s.

History
The designer clothing and fashion aspect of the casual subculture began in the mid-to-late 1970s. One well documented precursor was the trend of Liverpool youths starting to dress differently from other football fans – in Peter Storm jackets, straight-leg jeans and Adidas trainers. Liverpool F.C. fans were the first British football fans to wear continental European fashions, which they picked up while following their teams at matches in Europe during their run of strong performance in the UEFA Cup and European Cup in the 1970s and 80s.

The other documented precursor, according to Colin Blaney, was a subculture known as Perry Boys, which originated in the mid-1970s as a precursor to the casuals. The Perry Boys subculture consisted of Manchester football hooligans styling their hair into a flick and wearing sportswear, Fred Perry shirts and Dunlop Green Flash trainers.