Men and Women’s Sartorial Styles in the 1990s Islington Clubs
摘要
This chapter looks at the social groups that attended the Islington house and jungle clubs, and demonstrates that these groups weren’t only separated musically, socially and to some degree racially, but by an identifiable sartorial style. While both groups appropriated high-end brands such as Gucci, Armani, Ralf Lauren, Valentino and, in the case of the junglists, Moschino and Versace, this chapter argues that the white youth gangs from Islington’s estates wore a style that was discreet and understated, while junglists’ style was more ostentatious and garish. The white youth gangs from Islington’s estates adopted a style influenced by local older criminals and to some degree, football casuals, who in turn were influenced by the mods and mod revivalists; while the junglists took strands of ragga, rude boy and hip-hop style to create their look. The chapter locates these groups in their social, geographical and historical contexts, and in the case of the Islington gangs, the council estates from which they came, and demonstrates a connection between music, clubs, fashion, localised places and specific forms of criminal ‘deviance’ such as armed robbery, drug dealing and commercial burglary between both groups.