‘FASHION MARSUPIALS'

From The Guardian:

‘The police last week in Sunderland, out to control the bilious eruptions of the provisional moron wing of English football fans, preened themselves on how good intelligence had enabled them to spot and control the troublemakers. Good intelligence? Anyone attending that game, and indeed any other football match over the weekend, would have been able to inform the police who were the likely lads out to cause a problem

It is the easiest thing in the world, because they all wear a uniform as distinct and pronounced as our boys in the Iraqi desert. From Manchester City to Doncaster Rovers, Leeds United to Yeovil Town, 100% of hoolifans will be decked out in the same kit. Jeans and trainers may vary, but every man jack of them will be wearing a checked Burberry cap and a Stone Island jumper, usually in a fetching shade of beige.

Stone Island jumpers first appeared in the stands in the early 90s. With all the subtlety of a cluster bomb, they enabled the well-draped to wear their wealth on their sleeve. Within a year or two, the jerseys became the easiest way for rivals to identify who among the opposition supporters was up for a fight. It has long been the irony of those notices on pub doors banning fans in football shirts that the real troublemakers are the ones in pricey woollens.

As with most fashions, the leaders quickly became bored with the way in which their exclusive designs were to be seen on the streets of Chippenham and they moved on to Prada, CP Company and Armani, sneeringly referring to their former favourite as Clone Island.

But for some reason the look stuck with the lumpen mass as the best way they had of showing how tough they were. High and dry in their Stone Island, they are fashion marsupials, immune to the wider style world, wearing the kit so long after it was remotely credible that they are likely to still be in it in time for a revival.’