David Rogers takes us through the modern era of football fashion.
The 70's
The popular look on Sloper Road during the 70's was all about the flares, tank tops, platform boots & denim jackets all topped off with the feather cut. The aforementioned blue, white & yellow bar scarf migrating from the neck to wrist. In addition to this look was the Clockwork Orange inspired white butchers coat with the other 70's must-have-item being the scarf of the opposition worn as a badge of honour gained defending the Grange End.
Late 70's to early 80's
During this time City fans had a bit of an identity crisis as many different styles vied for supremacy in the Ninian fashion sakes. The birth of punk had an impact along with the skinhead and mod revival movements. This meant it all depended on which tribe you pledged allegiance to define the look of the individual with more bile aimed at members of other tribes than even supporters of other teams.
The 80's
During the 80's one look ruled the Ninian terraces alone and that was the look of the terrace casual. The casual scene was the first football diven youth movement in the uk and really took a hold at Cardiff as it coincided with a low point on the pitch as the team was in free-fall through the leagues.
The look of the casual was all about the labels with styles changing regularly, many of the crowd at the time would only turned up to show off their new trainers and get one up man ship over their fellow casuals. Must have labels of the time were Fila, Tacchini, Adidas, Lacoste, Burberry, Aquascutum, Lyle & Scott and Pringle.
1988 – 1991
As the 80's drew to a close the rave & mad-chester scenes were taking a grip and the City fans were not immune to the draw of the "second summer of love." The cloths to be seen in on the Bob Bank (1 of only 2 stands open at the time) were Barker parallel flares, kicker boots, ponchos and ponytails.
1992 – 1994
As the Rick Wright band wagon rolled in to Cardiff coinciding with the dawn of the premiership the prevailing terrace fashion must have was the Echo sponsored City top as it was finally available in the club shop. Another big look at the time was the middle eastern inspired robe and Arab headdress look topped off with false beard.
1995 – 2002
House check and Stone island were without question the prevailing look around this time with the Burberry factory in Treorchy supplying at least 80% of any Ninian crowd with 1 or more items of clothing.
2002 – Present
The advent of Chav culture (?) rendering all check especially baseball caps un-wearable and subsequently causing the the Burberry factory in Treorchy to close for good, meaning the more discerning City fan has turned to less flamboyant looking lables of late to strut their stuff at the footie. Today’s labels of choice include CP company, Paul & Shark, Prada & Armani jeans with old school Adidas trainers.
