In 1985 the tabloid press drew attention to the appearance of the Cambridge ‘Main Firm’ − a group of Cambridge football supporters convicted of a violent attack on their Chelsea rivals. The Daily Mirror described the assailants as a ‘smartly dressed gang of thugs’ wearing ‘Pringle jumpers, denims and training shoes to make them look more like the boy next door than hooligans’. However, rather than being a cunning disguise as the Mirror intimated, the attire of the Cambridge Main Firm was indicative of the football-oriented ‘Casual’ style that had been crystallising in Britain’s working-class youth culture for several years. Observers noted a degree of regional variation in the Casual look, with corduroy flares making a comeback in Manchester, while Liverpool saw a vogue for baggy jumpers and sheepskin coats. There was also a dizzying turnover in fads and crazes. But, overall, the emphasis was towards a style that was smart and expensive, with a preference for Fred Perry sports shirts and Pringle golf jumpers increasingly giving way to an obsession with upmarket sportswear and high-class designer brands.

The Casuals, as they came to be known, evoked the sharp, competitive dress-sense of the 1960s mods. Some debate surrounds their origins, but there is general consensus that their roots lay in the British north-west during the late 1970s and early 1980s, where two parallel scenes paved the way for the Casuals’ development − the ‘Perry Boys’ in Manchester and Salford, and the ‘Scallies’ in Liverpool.

The Perry Boys − so-called because of their early proclivity for Fred Perry shirts − began to take shape in Manchester’s post-punk fallout of the late seventies and early eighties. Informed by the local Northern Soul heritage and the period’s mod revival, the ‘Perries’ affected a smart ‘soulboy-mod’ look. Alongside short-sleeved Fred Perry shirts, also de rigueur were Peter Werth long-sleeved, knitted polo shirts (often in burgundy or with thin hoops). Lee cords and Lois jeans were also much in evidence, together with Adidas sportswear − especially Adidas white, leather Stan Smith trainers. The haircut of choice tended to be a neatly combed ‘wedge’. Popularised by David Bowie on the cover of his 1977 Low album, the wedge had a long fringe, grown low in a ‘flick’ over one eye, with the sides shorter, layered and cut to a point at the back. Tastes in music were fairly eclectic, though soul and early synth-pop bands found some favour. Football was probably more important, and the Perry Boys competed on and off the terraces with their Merseyside rivals.

In Liverpool, the Perry Boys found their counterpart in the Scallies − a name derived from ‘scally’, local slang (abbreviated from ‘scallywag’) for a mischievous rascal. Scallies and Perries had some sartorial similarities but, by the end of the 1970s, the Liverpool lads were showing a distinct enthusiasm for European sportswear. During the late 1970s and early 1980s Liverpool FC enjoyed success in several European football competitions and their young fans, following the team across Europe, began returning home with expensive sportswear unavailable in Britain (some of it reputedly shoplifted from foreign stores). Items of Adidas and Lacoste clothing that were unavailable in the UK were especially prized, along with fashions from European labels previously little-known in Britain − for example, Sergio Tacchini, Fila, Ellesse and Kappa. Some inspiration was also taken from the Continental street fashions sported by groups such as the Italian Paninari − youngsters in Rome and Milan who coupled European sports brands with expensive American leisurewear.